t makes sense to me.Once the habitat gets degraded as much as it is in 2G,it takes far less deer to continue to impact the habitat.While deer can certainly survive in poor habitat,it makes no sense to increase the population if they're forced to eat indicator species like beech.That proves that other more valuable and more preferred species are getting wiped out.I don't understand why anyone would find that acceptable.
Why didn't all the preferred species get wiped out when we had 40 DPSM in the 1940s and and 1970s? Don't we have any stands 30-60 year old pole timber stands of oak,ash and maple? Why did over 70% of the plots regenerate in the NC counties during the early 80's, after the area had been over browsed since the 20", and even though there were a lot more deer?