Is it true?
Contributors to this thread:Pennsylvania
From: spike78
03-Jul-14
Their is a post on the Massachusetts forum on PA's hidden deer management agenda, made me sick, is it true? Go to MA forum and read hunters must read thread.
From: Phil Magistro
03-Jul-14
I thought this whole thing had finally settled. Instead it seems there is someone trying to dredge up old news and get some attention.
I seriously doubt there is any hidden agenda. There is political influence.
From: Phil Magistro
03-Jul-14
Yes there is an agenda. Most would call it a plan. It isn't hidden.
From: spike78
03-Jul-14
Not trying to dredge up old news, im not from PA and just read it today, wasnt sure when it was written or if it was true or not?
From: Phil Magistro
03-Jul-14
Wasn't accusing you. There are some groups in this state that cannot get over the past.
From: roger
03-Jul-14
That's bits and pieces of a story and the blanks are filled in with hearsay and conjecture.......It's an old narrative. Next.
Ronny, I heard they spotted Jack Ruby over there in Potter, too. :)
From: spike78
04-Jul-14
Thats good to hear guys, with all the private land I cant see how the herd would be able to get wiped out anyway. You guys must have some big deer out there now with those APR's?
From: roger
04-Jul-14
spike78, we do have some "big deer",......some small ones too and everything in between. You can't just "wipe out" a deer herd as some suggest and that doesn't do anyone any good even if we could. We harvest 300,000+ deer each year in PA. That said, with all the educational tools and info out there, we still unfortunately have some folks who don't understand that the deer won't necessarily always be where they've always hunted.......It just doesn't work that way. The woodlands are dynamic and so are their respective food and cover sources. Resourceful and knowledgeable hunters continually take deer each year.
One of the 'problems' we have in PA is that there are vast expanses of boreal or "closed canopy" forests where little to no browse exists. And browse comprises about 85% of a Whitetail's diet - they have to have it and there is no way around that. Show me a depleted forest and I'll have a tough time seeing deer there much less kill one. Show me a track of land where the proper habitat exists and that's where the deer will be.
From: dougell
04-Jul-14
Good post Roger.Along those lines.I live in the north central part of the state where the habitat was depleted for decades.Today,a mid level understory is starting to get established in many areas where none existed before and they're no longer having to fence timber sales which is a benefit to everyone,especially the deer..As the habitat recovers so does the deer herd.I've been hunting for 33 years and I've never seen the opportunities as good as what they are right now.
From: roger
04-Jul-14
Yeah, Pennsylvania is potentially 'lumber wealthy'. It's my understanding our Cherry in particular is the best to be had. Again, what some don't correlate is the relationship of timbering to Whitetails. In the 20's, 30's and 40's they cut down just about everything that could be had, and subsequently the 50,'s, 60's and 70's saw an enormous deer herd as the direct result, in particular north of I-80. Those were the days when 100+ does could be seen the opener of "buck season" in the big woods areas. Now in the 80's and 90's we watched those deer eat the forest and when the food went so did they. As the browse works it way back, so do the deer, and in a proportional enough way.
Nothing is a perfect system and you will never please everyone, but the way I see it is that it's pretty damn good right now.
From: spike78
04-Jul-14
Here in MA it is exactly what you describe, mature trees with too much canopy and no undergrowth. The oaks have deer but few in the pines. The tree huggers just dont understand about selective cutting. I wont argue with the biologists when they say we have the healthiest herd in the country and some monsters out there but I would sure like to see more than five or six deer per season.