ORIGINAL: bluebird2
I strongly disagree with your opinion of the habitat in those areas. While you may be able to find areas of over browsing ,the carrying capacity of the habitat is still much higher than the current DDs in those areas. You apparently are claiming that the habitat is controlling the herd ,when in fact it is harvests that exceeded recruitment that reduced the herd. If the habitat was as bad as you and others claim ,multiflora rose would be over taking the abandoned fields in those areas.
I'm not claiming the habitat is controlling anything.I'm simply stating that the habitat is very por in mnay of those areas.I hunted at my buddy's place in 2007.the day before the opener,I walked all through his property,checking out potential stand sites.There was nothing for the deer to eat in the woods.It was all northern hardwoods so there was no oak mast and lieterally no browse.Some areas had been cut and nothing was growing past the deer except beech and black birch.Even the hedgerows had nothing of value growing in them.My brother's property was a tangled mess after a tornado several years ago.Today,there should be a ton of browse in there but the huge deer herds in that area ate it all.Five years ago,you couldn't crawl through there.Today it's open enough to shoot through.You're sadly mistaken if you think that deer can't or won't effect the habitat in that part of the state.By the way,I can show you places where multiflora rose has to be bulldozed.