VT,
Your right the deer aren' t mine, but I provide for them and make sure they are safe and healthy, and get them in the best possible shape for winter to insure their successul survival. The deer leave the area for 2 to 4 months out of the year to yard. My base carrying capacities are based on personal property inspections and conversations with John Ozoga, the most quoted deer research biologist in the country, and Mark Thomas, a noted forester and wildlife biologist located in AL, also a national board member of the QDMA.

If you read the above, the carrying capacities are set for optimum health of the herd and habitat, with any over-populations headed off before they take place in the form of effective fawn harvest based on current years fawn recruitment rates.

As a whole, our current areas population numbers are UNDER our area' s carrying capacity. With improvements to my property, my propertie' s resident population may someday approach the carrying capacity, but it isn' t there yet, according to John Ozoga, and Mark Thomas.

As far as drawing deer from public land....that' s the beauty of owning your own land. My goal is to make the deer on my property, the highest population that the habitat with healthily support, with the highest overall health to the deer. As far as letting others hunt on my property....over my dead body! Just like they can' t hunt the healthy grouse population, and rabbit population, that the irresponsible general hunting public has decimated on public land to the point of non-existance in my area. That' s the beauty of owning land. You can be responsible with your own land, do what' s best for the herd and the habitat, and you yourself can take reward of the plentiful bounty of quality habitat and bounty that you have helped sustain. In all fairness, I' m also involved in State legislation and influence to help improve the status of our public lands, but that' s unfortunately up to NRC/DNR legistlation, so the health of the herd and hunter enjoyment still continue to suffer. As for my land, I try to get the most out of it, and my local deer herd is better for it, and the habitat does not suffer as we are still under carrying capacity.

Jeff...U.P. of Michigan