IMO the biggest single aspect to having a good herd is habitat. Unfortunately the tree huggers fight logging operations and want to see all large tracts of forest uncut and after a while they mature. Great for hiking but no food for the deer. It seems that they have been allowing quite a bit of cutting in this state but only softwoods which has decimated the winter yards. Our department is frivolously spending time and money to force AR (branch antler) down our throats but all the while have lost sight of the real issue of habitat. Our numbers have steadily fallen since the AR came into law about 5 years ago. Preliminary figures from our just completed seasons indicate we are down about 20-25% from last year which was dismal in its own right. Vermont probably hires the low end biologists who can’t get a job anywhere else.