ManySpurs

Don't try to sell me your line of QDMA drivel. I know better. And it appears that in 2000, before this plan was fully implemented, that even the head biologist with the DCNR agreed with my assessment on herd health and habitat.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/polycomm...points0101.htm

DCNR Studies Gauging Health of Forests, Deer


Ice choked the slower waters of Pine Creek, snow squalls whipped through the stream valley, and gusting winds of an Arctic front were downing tree limbs everywhere. It was not a good day to be hunting deer in this stretch of Tioga State Forest.
But, says DCNR wildlife biologist Merlin Benner, you should have been here yesterday. Or, more precisely, Nov. 27 through the 29, when the state’s regular antlered deer season opened.
On those days, Benner and his Bureau of Forestry colleagues were kept busy checking and weighing deer: big deer, healthy deer. Bucks that sported 6- and 8-point sets of antlers and does whose size showed food was abundant.
But that was yesterday. Today, on the second day of the state’s antlerless deer season, Benner sat idle in his deer-check trailer not far from Lycoming-Tioga county line. Today weather would be the deer’s strongest ally, and Benner would have time to discuss what he and the Bureau of Forestry are trying to accomplish by staffing deer-check stations in both Tioga and Elk state forests.
Above Benner hangs a map delineating an 18,000-acre tract within Tioga State Forest. A combination of pins and other makings tell the biologist where forest regeneration is being monitored; where deer habitat is best and deer numbers highest; and, finally, where hunters are killing deer.
“We are keeping one eye on where forest vegetation is rebounding,” Benner said, “and another on deer densities. As a result, we are able to direct hunters to areas where their chances of seeing deer are good.”
The Tioga study and a similar one in the Quehanna Wild Area of Elk State Forest are supplying the Bureau of Forestry with invaluable data on what happens in a forest when deer multiply beyond a woodland’s carrying capacity. It also gives some hunters needed ingredients for success.
“Just about everyone who comes through these doors has been pleased with what they have seen in the Tioga tract,” Benner said. “One man stopped in on the third day of buck season, asked for some suggested areas, tried one, and came back with a beautiful eight-pointer.” Most of the deer weighed in this year have been large and well fed, the biologist said.
That was not always the case, Benner said. Too many deer took too great a toll on available browse and other foods in the Tioga State Forest tract. Too many deer, mostly protected does, were tilting a fragile balance, and the population in this study area plummeted.
“The equation for a healthy forest is a simple one,” the biologist said. “The more deer you have, the more have to be shot. If not, we will return to not so many years ago when the population collapsed because of too many animals and too little food.”
Successful hunters, most of whom are grateful to participate, are asked when and where they killed their deer. They then watch as Bureau of Forestry personnel weigh the animals, measure its girth and, if a buck, the spread and thickness of antlers. Finally, a tooth is extracted for aging.
The teeth and study data will be forwarded to the state Game Commission, whose Deer Management Section has stated a commitment to deer management policies that seek both a healthy deer herd and thriving forests rich in biodiversity. As the 2001 hunting season approaches next fall, hunters wishing to participate in the deer-check studies can receive details by telephoning Elk State Forest at (814) 486-3353, or Tioga State Forest at (570) 724-2868.