Your area in VT might be one of the few areas in the country that are somewhat similar to ours. One of the things with the U.P., is we have areas that avg. 300 inches in the north, to 60" in the south, over just a 35 mile differance!

Guys that are unfamiliar with the harshness of northern latitudes, such as Dr. David Gyunn, are only familiar with the burgeoning deer herds common throughout the entire country, in which mature doe harvest is very important, if not necassary, for population reduction. But in areas of extreme snowfall and higher winter mortality rates, basing a management plant on fawn harvest, while maintaining a mature doe population, is about the only way to insure a stable, consistant population of deer. Removing mature does can drastically alter your areas population levels, and in fact, can actually leave an area completely devoid of deer until neighboring areas become overpopulated, something that may happen every 10 years or so.

In our area, we lose 50% of our fawns in an avg. winter, and virtually all in an extreme winter, along with most yearlings. For most deer managers in the country, this is unimaginable, and most have little to no experience with this phenomenon.

Jeff...U.P. of Michigan