The browse impact surverys can't be over-inflated.Come on down this spring when we do them and see for yourself.The public is welcome.As far as the pellet counts go,I don't have much faith in them.Deer over winter in different areas depending on food so it's hard to say how accurate they are.On top of that,I personally feel that a percentage of pellet groups degrade during periods of winter thaws which can skew the results from year to year.I've also done pellet counts in areas where I see loads of deer every day on my way to work.The one year,we came up with 18 dpsm in one of the heaviest concentrated areas because a couple flocks of turkeys worked through the area just prior to doing the count.Getting a measure on deer numbers is almost impossible.It's much more reliable to gauge the habitat.

Last year we checked in 150 bow killed deer that were killed on 2200 acres.That equates to a harvest of around 43 dpsm.That doesn't account for poached deer and deer that are killed by tresspassers and never checked in.There is no doubt in my mind that the harvest in those areas is way above 50 dpsm.Now that's just bow killed deer.Imagine how many dpsm would be harvested if rifles were allowed.The highest over winter pellet count we came up with was just shy of 70 dpsm.We're killing over 40 pre season deer per square mile with bows.You really think those numbers are inflated?

I resigned from the wildlife committee during november so I don't have the total updated harvest at this point.I do know that as of the the last week of november,143 had been checked in.I also know that several more were checked in during both rifle season and the late season so the harvest has actually increased.

I'm also willing to be that the number of poached deer and deer shot by hunters without permits would easily approach another 100 deer.