R.S.B.

Perhaps this will help some people better understand the deer/habitat relationship.

Often people question why we don’t have more deer and blame the lack of deer on hunters harvesting too many deer. Though it is possible to over harvest deer in some small pockets of any area I believe the following pictures show the biggest reason we don’t have more deer in most areas. When you have winter habitat that isseverally affected by the deer, like this obviously is,harvesting fewer deer would do nothing more then create more winter mortality and food for the predators or scavengers.

These pictures were taken last week in one of the wintering grounds areas near Ridgway.

The first picture shows how the deer chewed the rhododendron down to what was under the frozen snow crust where they couldn’t dig down any further.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/RBODENHORN/WinterDeerdamage001.jpg

This picture shows how the deer ate all of the rhododendron that wasn’t buried beneath the snow to as high as they could reach.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/RBODENHORN/WinterDeerdamage005.jpg

A view of how the hungry deer ate all of the hemlock, down to the stem, that was above the crust line.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/RBODENHORN/WinterDeerdamage008.jpg

Make no mistake about the fact that the deer in this area proved that their numbers are about to the maximum the winter could have supported. Even with the winter having opened when it did it will likely still result in reduced fawn survival rates once again this year due to many not reaching the correct birth weight due to the stress mom endured through the winter.

R.S. Bodenhorn

livbucks

Pretty little dead deer aint it?

Coalcracker

I was in my back field today with my one son, burning some of the grass and corn stalks off the field. There is still a lot laying where the harvester missed it, beans are still on the soybeans and nothing will eat the turnips we planted last year. Since the weather has broken, there is a flock of turkey in my back field that I see at least once a day. There is thirty some of them, they head West in the morning and East in the evening. With more food than the deer can eat, we also had and have herd reduction.

If the PGC knows where the deer spend their winter, what is being done to improve these winter grounds? If nothing is being done, except shooting the deer off, then shame on the PGC.

bluebird2

That is a nice theory but the the past 80 years of the history of our herd proves you are wrong. For the past 80 years the habitat has supported an average of 25 DPSM even during severe winters. In the mid 70s the herd peaked at over 40 DPSM, so can you imagine how over browsed the wintering areas were then, but the deer still survived and produced the max. number of fawns because the herd had not exceeded the MSY carrying capacity of the habitat.

Claiming that the habitat is controlling the herd when there is more than twice as much food/deer available now compared to 10 years ago is irrational and irresponsible.