ORIGINAL: Buck Magnet
All I have been hearing for the past several days is "the deer in PA are gone" and "there are no deer left in PA".
Now, lets discuss why Pennsylvania needed the deer herd reduced! It seems to me that most hunters think that PA put in antler restrictions and increased doe tags in order to grow bigger antlered bucks! This isn't true. I will admit that it was a tool used to get hunters to agree to the new program, but this isn't the focusing point! ..... Now lets talk about plants! The deer herd was over-browseing and the wild plants were taking a pounding! The deer herd actually wiped out several plants in this state that will never be back!
I think that hunting shows and hunting movies have put it into everyones heads that places like Canada, Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas have tons of deer with huge racks running around! These states have smaller deer density than PA. For instance, I read somewhere that Canada has deer densitys of 5-10 deer per square mile and I have read as low as 1-2 deer per square mile in certain spots.
I will agree that there are ways to improve this management program. I still think that we need smaller WMU's. Pennsylvania has such a diverse terrain and the deer population varies greatly from county to county! But, as I have seen, the program is working, and working well. Bigger/healthier deer that aren't going to be as dependant on crops and won't have as hard of a time finding food this winter!
Finally, the one major thing that I have noticed this year is that deer aren't bedding where they normally do. The places where I have been seeing the most deer this past week are spots that you wouldn't ever imagine!
Buck Magnet, I couldn't agree more with you. I hunt both end of the state with significantly different terains and habitats. Where I hunt in McKean County, there are mostly Cherry trees with some ash and beech. I haven't seen an oak tree in 2 years. I also saw very few deer out ther and those that I did were small. There is very little browse, except in clear cut areas (which are pretty much impenetrable by people) and even with the reduced herd they still seem to be exceeding the carrying capacity of the land.
Monroe county on the other hand, has a ridiculous amount of deer. Small ones, but many. I tagged an 8 point 115 pounder during archery, and observed over 20 different does and yearlings, but when I showed up for gun season, they were apparantly gone.
There are two major factors for this this year. There was a poor mast crop this year, and much of it was blown down in the aftermath of the hurricane this summer. This forced the deer to seek food elsewhere. The second was the full moon. The deer are at the midnight buffet during the full moon and you have to almost step on them during the day to get them moving.
I also observed in both counties that there was very little for the deer to eat in the woods. Take a walk in the woods in late spring in an oak forrest and tell me how many oak saplings you see. There ain't any! They become deer salad before they get a foot tall!
In my opinion, we haven't killed off enough deer, and need further herd reductions througout the state to allow the forrests time to regenerate.
IMHO, you will have to really work for your deer in the future but the habitat and herd will be better of for it and if the crybaby lazy hunters really want to improve the hunting in Pa, then plant an oak tree!!!