The tree stand is in a stand of balsum and cedar trees on my property that borders on the edge of a large track of National Forest. I have never allowed logging in this section of the property. I leave it natural because of the marsh. Although I learned someone got a permit from the federal government to clear cut the federal area behind me....Hope they have fun in the bog out there....

The balsums die off easy, and often times have their lower limbs die off and sometimes only the very tops will have green on them. The cedars are in bigger danger because in a bad winter the deer will eat all the lower branches they can reach for the boughs. Often times if the snow is real deep and food is scarce for them I will drop my cedar trees early and when spring comes there are no branches to clean up because the deer do it for you. All you do is go back out in the spring and cut the stumpage.

I remember one spring I had friends up to the place and we were walking through the woods on my property and they kept asking why so many of the small popular trees were girdled. For some reason there was no bark around the tree for a foot or two on some, but the area they were talking about was well over six feet in the air. I finally had to explain it was a bad winter and the rabbits were eating the bark on the trees that year. The snow of course was over six feet deep.....

There are a lot of things that naturally kill the trees...

I would agree that holding on the center of the chest on deer sized animals out to 100 yards is the best idea regardless of angle. Just don't have to think about it. 2 inches of difference in POI won't make any differnece. In my example, I made 2 fatal errors: Holding at the top of the body and not realizing that the POI would be above that.

I would also not shoot a deer/elk in the neck, but I know people that do. In that case a couple of inches would make a big difference. Which is another reason that I only shoot for the chest today.