Originally Posted by
bowhunter2117
Blue bird looks like someone has pie on his face
Doug as I recall in the past you stated deer survive mainly by grazing on the golf course now its house plants surely with that many deer and with such poor habitat for decades the deer mortality must be horrific how about posting some pictures of all the winter die off.
if the habitat were so poor why didn’t the deer herd crash decades ago and remain at a level where this poor habitat could support them years ago or is your private petting preserve an exception to the rule the same rule that you and rsb claim govern the rest of the state forest land, private land and sgl with far fewer deer than your zoos 45 to 50 dsm
Mike,we've been over this dozens of times.First of all,please bring up a post where I said deer are surviving from grazing on grass.I've never claimed that deer are primarily grazers.You're simply a flat out liar.The deer herd didn't crash years ago because we've had a series of very mild winters.On top of that,people feed the deer,eat the landscaping and lately have been sustaining themselves on the tree tops from the hundreds of acres that have been logged.We do have mortality however.In the spring of 2004,we found 5 dead,winter killed deer in one 76 acre patch while doing a popultaion census with PSU.In another area,we found 15 winter killed deer.I also have a picture of a winter killed deer that died in my friend yard last winter.The deer have definately destroyed the habitat in TL and I have the results of several years of browse impact surveys to prove it.Our pellet count survey also show that out deer herd is down below 50- dpsm from a high of 70 dpsm 5 years ago.Our harvests aren't even scratching the surface of what should be being recruited so something else is decreasing the herd.Recruitment this year is as bad as I've ever seen.