I have been going in where were doing clear-cuts, and even some select cuts, for nearly twenty-five years now to count the growth rings on the species deer eat. In most cuts I can’t find anything deer eat that has regenerated since the mid to late 1940’s. That means it has actually been about sixty to seventy years since the deer allowed a good food source for themselves to grow beyond the seedling stage in most areas.
For years RSB has been claiming that the recent HR occurred because the habitat was controlling the herd. Now he claims the deer haven't allowed any regeneration for 60-70 years. Therefore, the habitat should have been controlling the herd in the 80s after 40 years of over browsing
But, once again the deer and the PGC experts tell us RSB doesn't have a clue and is just making things up and to prove it beyond a doubt I will show how the herd increased in the counties that comprise 2G from 1983 to 2000 in terms of DPFSM.
County 1983 2000
Cameron 19 15
Clinton 21 20
Clearfield 32 42
Elk 20 26
Lycoming 25 28
Potter 25 34
So after 60 years of what RSB claims was over browsing and despite the PGCs efforts to reduce the herd with bonus tags and high antlerless allocations the deer herd still increased in 4 out of the six counties. Therefore , it is blatantly obvious that it is not the habitat that was responsible for reducing the herd and the buck harvest by around 40%.