ORIGINAL: bluebird2
You conveniently left out the fact that the habiata is still recovering and you also ignore predation. Of course, we all know that if Bluebird deems a factor irrelevant, it must be so
Wrong once again. The deer in 2G have twice as much food per deer as they had in 2000 yet their recruitment rate is the lowest in the state.
Alt said that the increased breeding rates and shorter breeding window would offset the effects of predation, but he lied. With a lower OWDD the effects of predation increase rather than decreasing.
The simple fact is that you have nothing but your theories to support your position. You continue to dwell on a few misstatements made when Gary Alt started making changes years ago. You still can show no cause and effect relationshipbetween the Current doe kill and declining recruitment or breeding success. It aint necessarily so just because you say it is. The fawn and doe mortality studies have shown that predation is a significant factor. Even if we totally discount the extremely low effect that hunters had on either study, predation was a significant force in mortality for both adult does and infawns in 2G. The simple fact that there are large areas where the understory and therefore escape cover is nonexistent and would make it more difficult for deer and especially fawns to avoid predators