Crazyhorse,I hunt almost exclusively public land and what land isn't state owned,is either owned by a timber company and open to anyone or it's a game/farm coop.The land where I live will be open to hunting for the first time this year and I plan on filling my two dmap tags by the middle of the first week of archery season.It'll be state land from then on until the middle of January.I only ever met one commissioner and that was just about a month ago.No plans on hunting with him either.I also have no intentions of finding you but keeping up would be no problem if I wanted to.The thing is, I usually walk slow.That why I don't miss many deer.Maybe you should try that.

Sproulman,I don't know what kind of wild mushrooms your eating but they're making you dilusional.We don't have two extra months of growing season sinceherd reductions began.In fact,2003 and 2004 where both very long hard winters.What do maples and ferns have to do with anything?The ferns are an invasive species that takes over when the shrub layer is removed,a sure sign of overbrowsing.Most of the places where I'm seeing good regeneration is in fact where light is getting in.In fact most of them are areas that have been recently cut.Interestingly,that never happened when the herd herd was much larger.The deer would eat all the stump sprouts and seedlings leaving nothing behind but non-prefered species.You say it's global warming.I say it's deer and most biologists and foresters would agree with me and they have the proof to back it up.I'm also seeing plenty of shade tolerant species like witch hazeland red maple starting to make it past the deerunder a closed canopy.

By the way,ferns grow in the sunlight as well.They keep spreading out until they hit a patch of growth.Unfortunately,there isn't much understory so they keep spreading out until they cover the whole forest floor,drowning out the sunlight for seedlings trying to break through.Lot's of ferns generally means you have or had way too many deer.It has nothing to do with you're un-proven theory of an extended growing season or large maple trees.