ORIGINAL: Dan O.
Brutalattack; I agree totally with your disturbance statement for increasing forage for deer. On the other hand in my area a deer yard won't be a mixed stand of conifers and hardwoods it'll be a dense growth of cedars. They migrate to these areas for food and shelter in very heavy snow areas.
Dan O.
Well I'm sure you understand that different latitudes have different forest/tree species so of course not all deer yards will be the same composition. I was aiming for the Eastern US south of Maine etc. I'm guessing cedars are fairly rare in the Eastern US expect possibly in northern coastal areas.
In general though you want conifers for thermal cover and security and hardwoods for some forage and travel corridors.