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09-20-2008 | 08:15 PM

#53

RSB

Fork Horn

Joined: Sep 2008

Posts: 147

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RE: Pa Game Comm. Overhaul

Quote:

ORIGINAL: bluebird2

Quote:

The first and most important thing taken into consideration is if the area has the food to feed more deer or not. That is where the forest floor (not the canopy as Bluebird said) is surveyed by using established survey plots to find out what the deer food species are doing.

Please note that I said the herd was being managed based on the regeneration of the existing canopy. Since regeneration begins at the forest floor my statement was accurate. Also, since in 2008 the PGC said the herd was at or above it's goal for herd health in every WMU,except one, herd health is not a limiting factor in managing the herd. Furthermore, deer human conflicts in areas that are 90% forested should be very low ,so that should not be a limiting factor in 2F or 2G.

Therefore, in 2F and 2G the herd is being managed based on the regeneration of the existing canopy as determined by the survey plots. In 2G only 42% of the plots regenerated and in 2F if was even worse. So, how much more does the PGC have to reduce the herds in 2F and 2G in order to increase regeneration to the desired goal of over 70%?Also, why is 2F being managed at 22 PS DPSM while 2G is managed at 12 DPSM? That doesn't seem to make any sense when the regeneration is poorer in 2F than in 2G.

You are correct that there are few deer/human conflict in units 2G or 2F but that is the very last influence in the deer management and population equation.

The limiting factor in units 2F and 2G is the fact that the habitat (which reads as the deer food) is still poor. That simply means that the food supply is not ready to support more deer except during the years of ideal conditions. If we have another hard winter or two the habitat could hardly support the present deer number let alone even more deer. Remember that it simply doesn’t matter how good the habitat is on the ridge tops or the plateaus of the northern tier during a harsh winter. During a long drawn out and harsh winter the only habitat that counts or will support deer is what can be found in the wintering grounds habitat of the river and stream bottoms or pine and hemlock thermal cover.

You keep wanting to use, argue and hang you hat on those old deer per square mile estimates. They are no longer used because they have no value, relationship to reality or reliability. Deer management is now based on the facts the deer provide because deer have no ability toward providing false information about when there are too many, just enough or capable of having more in the population.

Listen to the deer, they will tell us how to do it. We just need to be smart enough to do as they say we should.

Dick Bodenhorn

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