If anybody is familar with the TUSC St forest in the SC of Perry county you know there are very few deer.The FLIR listed a large area at 5 DPSM.In the past this state forest was hit hard with heavy hunting pressure and has pretty easy access.If habitat is the reason as they claim can somebody please explain to me why there are so many healthy acorns left over uneaten going into the second season of grouse?Not to mention this place has very few bear and coyotes.

I just posted something similar to this before I seen your post...Yes,there is no food shortage for these deer a all...Some years there is abundantant of food and sometimes there isn't,but the deer seem to manage allright at all times...They are not eating theirselves out of house and home as they claim they are...I don't think this is about habitat anymore and has more to do with insurance companies and the timber industry than us hunters..T

Just a thought but acorns are seasonal. What is there for them to eat the rest of the year?

It's a good question Germaine. I beleive the answer has two parts, First, as T in Pa3 has said, acorns are seasonal but they are also cyclical from year to year. I believe that I read somewhere that you can typically expect a good crop from a white oak only once every 3-5 years.

I don’t really know much about the deer or the habitat conditions in Perry County since all I ever do is drive through it but I am sure that some of if not most of the same principles apply there as would apply anywhere else.

The reason we had so many acorns left on the ground following last year’s bumper crop was likely the result of many factors coming into play.

First off I don’t think there is any question that the deer numbers were lower last year when we got that heavy mast crop of red oak acorns. That alone would result in not all acorns being eaten. I doubt there would have been as many acorns left on the ground had we had last year’s mast crop when the deer densities were at their peek.

Also we have to take into consideration that there should always be acorns left to produce new oak seedlings following the good acorn production years. Without having acorns left uneaten by wildlife we would have no new oak sprouts to produce the new oak seedlings needed as deer food during the summer months and the following years when we don’t get an acorn crop. Also without some of the those acorns being uneaten as both acorns and new tree seedlings we would not be able to replace the oak trees being cut or dying of natural causes.

For those reasons we have to understand that nature has peeks and valleys in all things, which include acorn production, tree seedling regeneration and also the deer densities. Those are not all separate issues either; they are all interconnected and will have different peek and valley cycles. That is the way nature works and we, as responsible managers of our resources have to learn to both understand and accept that those fluctuations will always occur.

In short, having those uneaten acorns, following last years bumper crop, is a good thing for the future of the deer herd since those new oak seedlings will feed a lot more deer in those future years when we don’t have any, or just a light acorn crop.

Dick Bodenhorn

If acorns germinate best from being buried by squirrels, why hasn't the PGC reduced or limitedthe daily limit on squirrels in areas where oak regeneration is failing?

To answer the comments from BT and T,there are thick clearcuts in the area with some pretty good browse.In this area oaks and maples seem to dominate the clearcuts.
We cracked some acorns which seemed to be OK without worms.
I know alot of discussion centers around the NC and habitat so I thought I'd throw an area in the SC in the mix.There may be a few coyotes but not close to the numbers in the NC.
Perry county has some good deer numbers on posted private parcels and being it's topo winters aren't as much a factor as the NC.I'm thinking the public lands might have to be managed differently in the future then private lands.This would be ashamed for public land hunters but it might be the only answer.
Any thoughts?

Germain,we have between 60-90 dpsm right around my house andI still have acorns laying in my yard from last year.The mast crop last year was huge and the deer went into winter and out of winter in excellent shape.If the same thing happened every year,we wouldn't have to worry too much about overbrowsing.Unfortunately,taht is the case every year and therefore deer are forced to rely on browse.Furthermore,only about 40% of our forest are oak/hickory.We have large expanses of forests that are northern harwoods without an oak tree to be found for miles.What do the deer eat during the winter in those areas?

Smokeman,this most certainly is about timber and the habitat.Why should we put deer hunting ahead of a multi-million dollar renewable resource?Show me ebven one small piece of evidence that the insurance industry has anything to do with herd reductions.

I don't even know what to tell you if you think that's an optimum condition for the deer or for future resources.

Doug, i always thought the same thing. that the insurance co's have never said or did anything w/ this.. but after reading outdoor life last year and it had a small thing from Alt, he said if we didnt do something the Insurance companies would. he also went on to say that since the GC are cutting tags that this will end up happening.. so who knows