Deer numbers are less where they needed to be less. Much of the crash in numbers has been a result of the habitat crash. The habitat is just starting to rebound. Deer numbers have stabilzed. You have no credible evidence that harvest has exceeded recruitment.
There was no habitat crash as you claim and Alt and the PGC never referred to a habitat crash. Furthermore ,it is totally illogical to conclude that the habitat would suddenly crash after over 70 years of over browsing. I have no idea how you could claim I have no evidence the harvests exceeded recruitment. All of the PGC data shows exactly that. What data are you looking at and do you have any data that shows harvests didn't exceed recruitment?
Maybe you should explain why buck harvests decreased by over 45% from 2001 to 2007 ,if total harvests prior to 2007 didn't exceed recruitment?