Bbearfax

Hmm acid rain???????? Maybe it what is keeping the deer from getting bigger antlers as well. Give me a break you people think 1.5 million in three years is alot. Right across the state line in Preston county WV we kill 30,000 deer in a season every season. Thats one county. The land I hunt is still so overpopulated its sceary and i hear the same things from most hunters i talk to. Give the guy a break he knowes what he is doing. USP is getting as bad as the WVBHA a bunch of sportsmen that think they know more that the experts. Oh well i guess we' ll see you guys in your mass mirgration the monday befor Thanksgiving to hunt in WV take all you want they breed fast.

mhogan

Mike, I hunt both. Private and public. I prefer the larger public tracts. I like to go back in and feel free to roam before I run into posted signs.

The public lands near cities do get too much pressure, IMO. They push the deer to safe areas that include safety zones. Deer won' t put up with too much.

No one is seeing many deer this season. Most people believe it is the moon, the warm weather and the large amounts of food that aren' t requiring travel.

Rifle season and a trip to the processors always tells the story. The deer can' t escape the pressure then. Till night anyhow.

But the bottom line is that we can' t manage for hunter satisfaction. We would all like to see 20 deer a night. But if it isn' t the habitat, it is farmer crop losses, or forester lack of regeneration, or deer vehicle collisions that tell us that we have to keep herd numbers down.

BarnesX.308

I think one reason people are seeing less deer now than they did 20 years ago has a lot to do with hunting practices. Back in, let' s say the 1970s, a lot more people hunted and there was less private property. There were more people in the woods to push deer around. There were also a lot of deer camps where guys hunted together and put on drives. That gets a lot of deer moving. When you are the only guy sitting in a tree stand during bow season, there aren' t going to be a steady stream of deer running past you. If there are camps putting on deer drives around you, you' re going to see deer.

Also, the lay out of the land plays a part. If the forest is timbered and there are a lot of overgrown areas, the deer will hunker down in the cover and not move. Things change but I don' t think deer sightings in the woods can tell the whole story.

T_in_PA2

You know what.... if acid rain is a problem, not allowing the forests to regenerate, then there is less food in the forests anyhow for deer which means there needs to be a low carrying capacity. So..... more deer need to be taken. Acid rain just adds to the problem and adds further arguement that we need to lower the deer numbers. It' s basic biology.

PA Hardwoods

I have seen in person one of these fenced off areas Mauser is talking about in PA and the area outside was wide open and the area inside was so overgrown it was near impossible to see 5 feet infront of you let anole walk through the stuff. Both areas were clearcut at the same time the only difference was deer had access to the outside of the fence and not the inside. Acid rain is causing some deforestation but sometime take a drive through th gamelands and state forest near Benezette and you can visibly see the browse line from the deer and all that will grow underneath is ferns wich deer do not eat so try and tell me acid rain is the real problem. Sho me some evidence and maybe then i' ll belive it.

tabby

Some parts of the state may be overpopulated. Others are seeing a drastic decrease in the amt. of deer, and there is no reason for it. I hunt on private land in the NW. If there are too many deer, then how many are the right number? 20 years ago my dad used to see over 70 deer before coming home for lunch. He could see 50 every night from the house. The woods were in the same condition as they are now, and if we see 10 deer running around during the opener, we are lucky. All of my neighbors say the same thing. The amt of people in the woods are not affecting how many deer we see, there are enough pushing the deer around.

This whole thing is politics. The insurance companies want less deer because they are spending too much money on deer damage. Why? The cars we drive now cost more to fix. We are driving faster, and the material of the new cars breaks easier. And the main thing, we spend more time driving at night, when the deer are out, therefor we hit more. The insurance companies could be left out of the equation if they didn' t pay for deer damage. You hit the deer, you fix your car. There aren' t too many deer, there are too many people. And like all things, it is the plants/animals that are affected because of our overpopulation.

I also believe the lumber companies havn' t helped out at all. They are there to make money, and they over cut the forest. My land is the best in the area, and it hasn' t been timbered for over 90 years. That means something.

How many deer are in the Allegany state park? (I am asking, not being sarcastic.) the last time i was there, there was a lot of undergrowth. It looked like a very healthy forest to me.

Pinwheel 12

Tabby--I know! How about from now on we render 2 out of every five males born in America sterile, and limit births in every married household to ONE ?? That would certainly curb the overpopulation of humans in the USA in about 200 years, not to mention significantly decrease the huge monies now given away to welfare-loving baby machines.[&:]

Maybe we are the species that needs to be better managed?[] Good post above. Food for thought--give the habitat back to the wildlife. There would certainly be enough of them to go around then! PW12

MikeE51848

Yeah, I' d like to know how many deer are running around that forest too. Any of you guys hunt it? I know there aren' t that many running around this neck of the woods (Carbon Cnty) either. But what the hell, it' s just the moon, right? In PA, the public land is hammered to hell with hunter pressure from bow to flint seasons and what deer are left are underground by first light. I too, remember seeing 20 - 30 deer passing thru the woods at a time.