This was taken in the spring of 2005, it has at least 80% deer hair.

Doug,I know what you mean about the beech taking over.I saw that at parker damn and SGL 93.But I really haven't seen any beechnuts in probably at least five years.They say the trees have a blight.
I know they're not the best for habitat but what I do like about them is that every critter I hunt likes them.

Sproulman,that seems like a great idea.Planting mast producing trees is great but the deer still needhigh quality browse to sustain them through winter.Lets make it 1 million chestnuts trees and 1 million white cedars.

Germain,I know what you mean about Parker dam.Most of the tornado area is worthless except for cover.When the beech is dropping nuts,the deer bear and turkeys sure flock to it.I don't have a problem with the mature beech trees.It's the dam seedlings that sprout up all overthe place that creats a problem.

I agree that Coyotes have an impact. I think they take deer, especially yarded deer in deep snow or hunter wounded deer.But scat w/ deer hair only proves the yote ate the deer. The deer could have died from other reasons.

As for fawns.I know that bears and yotes take a few, but are they not hard for an animal tofindby scent alone?Fawns are suppose ot be w/o scent the first month or so, no?

Also, I have seena doechase off coyotes that apparently found her fawn. Great story for another time, but deer are not defensless against them either.

its crazy that u brought that up. lately ive been hearing a lot about this kinda thing. fact this past weekend there was a write up in the paper about the problems insects are having on the forest . not saying i agree or not its just another thing to think about..

very nice picture, could you put a coyote print in snow on here,if you have it. there is no doubt in my mind that coyotes are killing fawns in big numbers .i saw it fishing in july. it seems that they work in groups of 2 when they do this also.1 barks while the other waits.i saw it.

Gobbler,the hemlocks and beech are having problems.Luckily the oaks gave some acorns this year finally.

Doug mentioned chestnuts,the PGC has some planted chestnuts on a gamelands here.Very very few deer in there but I think all five were going crazy on those chestnuts.

if massive amounts of chestnut trees were planted on pipelines,that would be great thing for deer.also winter wheat would be a big help in winter.

Check the Penn State study which has bear eating more fawns that coyote in the study area. Also the more coyotes that are shot the higher number of pups are in the litter. I hunt in 2F and yes the deer numbers are down, but I just have to work harder. I have noticed a higher percentage of buck.

Bears take fawns in equall numbers to the yotes when the fawns are still very young. The fawn study did confirm that. But there comes a time whenthe fawns simply get too fast for bears. Coyotes can also kill adult deer, especially in deep snow when bears are hibernating. They can also kill fawns that have grown beyond the point where bears can catch them.