What do you live in a hole in the ground all winter and only come out in the spring or what?

We have years with mild winter that have no adverse affects on the deer and then years with hard winters that have seriously hard affects on the deer. That is exactly the reason the deer herds in areas that are on the fringe of the winter severity conditions have deer populations that fluctuate as they do in the northern tier of this state.

More southern areas have stable deer populations that are only affected and controlled by the food supply and hunter harvests. Areas in the more northern zones have few deer even though they also have very low deer harvests because the winters limit the number of deer that can survive year round there.

Pennsylvania is one of the states on fringe of where we can have high deer numbers as long as the good environmental conditions last but then when we have a year or two with the harsh environmental conditions the deer numbers crash for a few years. That is something that people will just have to accept because that is the way it is.


You might not think the winters in Pennsylvania are a factor, but the deer sure to prove that the winters are a factor.

Here are a few pictures of some Elk County winter conditions and how deer deal with it.

Nearly a hundred deer were locked into about four hundred yards of wintering grounds habitat trying to live on hemlock and rhododendron during the 2003/2004 winter.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/RBODENHORN/Deer-winter2004.jpg

The affects on rhododendron toward the end of the winter.



Hemlock in a wintering grounds that was heavily browsed by deer during the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 winters. The picture was taken in the winter of 2006 after two full years of time to recover with mild winters.

The hemlocks in that wintering ground still haven’t fully recovered to the point they could support many deer through a harsh winter should another winter come along that forced all of the area deer to winter there again this winter.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/RBODENHORN/IMG_0282.jpg

Do you still think we don’t have winter influences on the number of deer that can live in many parts of this state? Come on up to this part of the state during or after a harsh winter and I’ll take you out and show you lots of evidence that proves winters are a serious factor, including winter killed deer.

Your question concerning my age has little to due with this discussion, but I will tell you that I could retire any time I wanted and likely have kids older then many of you debating this topic.

R.S. Bodenhorn