Rich,I have no doubt about the game lands near urban areas are hit pretty hard.They should definately be managed differently.I'm still betting that most have a preseason densitity higher than 11 dpsm.How long they stay in those game lands once the pressure starts is another story.

Yep,you shouldn't expect oaks to grow in the shade.I never claimed you should but you don't need complete sun either.There are alot of shade tolerant plants that should be growing in the understory.Most aren't there because the deer ate them all.After years of having the deer change the composition if the forest,the understory got filled in by species that deer don't eat,ferns are a good example.Once they get estabished,it'sd extremely hard to get regeneration with opening up the canopy and probably treating with herbisides.Yes,you can say that the current deer herd isn't having the biggest impact in those areas but it's proven that the deer put the forests in that shape to begin with and it makes no sense to add more deer to those situations.Some of the areas like you describe are starting to come back and I can show you evidence.It won't happen overnight however.

Ferns actually take off in sunlight but they survive in the shade.If they were a prefered browse species,they wouldn't be a problem.