Originally Posted by
Tony_Loyd
If you got less deer and they are only targeting the hardwood sprouts what is the forest going to be mainly consisted of?
Junk trees and shrubs.
You let these grow and they will block the sun that is needed for plant life.
Now you got more fast growing maples than you ever had before.
Now tell me this?
How do you plan on getting rid of the over abundance and dominant species of maples if the deer herd is reduced so much that they can now be picky about what they eat because there is no competiton over the best browse?
The maples will continue to grow without any predation on that plant from the deer and the target species now is the hardwoods and the junk trees get to grow and choke out the rest of the forest floor.
I allready told douge that and he cant understand it.
I'm seeing you on that Tony. I read a study on maples dominating landscapes back in the 90's, and the deer weren't mentioned as the greatest factor. Top reason stated was lack of forest fires in this century. That problem started long before the deer herd rose to it's peak densities in the NC. In burned over soils, like existed commonly before modern fire control practices, oaks had a decided edge, thriving in burned over soils where maples struggled. This kept the maples in check for centuries, until man interfered and started putting down fires quickly, before they spread. If deer herd is at low enough levels to have the luxuries of eating only preferred species such as oak, than our lower DD has actually compounded the problem...giving another competitive edge to the maples. Why don't we see controlled burns performed extensively in clearcuts...then reseeded with oak? Do this on a large scale in an area with reasonable DD, then fence a small exclosure and I bet your photo looks quite a bit different than the one a few pages back!