Pa Deer Management Video

[Palawman30]

This is a good video...This is meant to take nothing away from Jersey. Every state is diverse and needs a tailored management program that fits its individual needs. Just shows the boom and bust cycles.

Also Penn State U here has a partnership with the Pa Game commission into a lot of deer research topics. PSU has one of the best wildlife management programs in the country. I actually started at PSU as a wildlife major before life got in the way...

Does Jersey have any co-ops with there universities?
 
Check it out....
 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Palawman30

[Bucksnbows]

They did with Rutgers.  Don't know if that is still ongoing or not.

[Matty]

Great video. Really highlights the impact over-browsing has on a forest.

 

Has any state wildlife agency ever tried "rotational deer exclusion" to even out the impact of browsing?

 

It would be interesting to see if you could eventually balance the browse pressure and subsequently increase the carrying capacity and quality of the habitat by doing cuts next to each other as shown in the video and then rotating the areas protected by the deer ex-closures.

 

In other words, after sufficient growth in the current deer ex-closure, it is opened to the deer and another section is then closed off. Constantly rotating these areas should allow them to balance out. It would be continual work, but I imagine extremely beneficial.

 

It would be very similar to fencing off food plots until they can support and survive heavy feeding.

[Palawman30]

Great video. Really highlights the impact over-browsing has on a forest.

 

Has any state wildlife agency ever tried "rotational deer exclusion" to even out the impact of browsing?

 

It would be interesting to see if you could eventually balance the browse pressure and subsequently increase the carrying capacity and quality of the habitat by doing cuts next to each other as shown in the video and then rotating the areas protected by the deer ex-closures.

 

In other words, after sufficient growth in the current deer ex-closure, it is opened to the deer and another section is then closed off. Constantly rotating these areas should allow them to balance out. It would be continual work, but I imagine extremely beneficial.

 

It would be very similar to fencing off food plots until they can support and survive heavy feeding.

 

 

Were in the midst of a super rotation in Pa right now. On state land which there is a lot of we have deer exclosures... They are 5 to 10 acre clearcuts that are then fenced in for a period of 5-8 years or until proper regeneration takes place. Its pretty awesome to see and the fences become funnels for deer.

Once the fences come down it draws a lot of deer to the new growth.

Just in our area there were over 20 exclosures that I know of.. About 7 or 8 have come down while new ones went up so its working

[Rusty]

Were in the midst of a super rotation in Pa right now. On state land which there is a lot of we have deer exclosures... They are 5 to 10 acre clearcuts that are then fenced in for a period of 5-8 years or until proper regeneration takes place. Its pretty awesome to see and the fences become funnels for deer.

Once the fences come down it draws a lot of deer to the new growth.

Just in our area there were over 20 exclosures that I know of.. About 7 or 8 have come down while new ones went up so its working

 

That's a great plan.  

[Bucksnbows]

Fencing is extremely expensive and doesn't always work as planned.  For instance, NJ Conservation Foundation fenced a large part of their Apshawa Preserve in West Milford only to have numerous trees take out sections of the fence and the deer get right back in.  In Sparta Mtn. WMA, the Division in conjunction with NJ Audubon has fenced in 5 acres in one of the new clear cuts with approx. half of that fenced in area within the cut and the other half outside of the cut to study regeneration of their clearings in both cut and uncut areas.  We've been diligent about maintaining that fence so far and no deer have gotten inside it.  But fencing is also not realistic because it treats deer like something that does not belong in our forests when they do, of course.

 

I'm not a fan of large scale fencing but prefer instead to perform forestry clearings large enough to withstand deer browse pressure and only in areas where the herd is in balance with the forest being cut.  I do like that PA removes their fences and have been on tours of several PA sites mentioned earlier.  On my property I manage in Sparta, we've done 3 separate clear cuts.  The first was 5 acres and is the poster child for clearcuts in mature oak/hickory forests.  This cut will be showcased by the Division and NJ Forestry Services as well as non-profit forestry organizations on Wednesday, April 31st.  I'll make sure to post a reminder with details as we get closer to the date.  With a full 5 acres cleared in that now 6 year cut and deer numbers of approximately 20 deer/square mile, we successfully grew our regenerating forest above the browse line by year 4.  A second, much smaller cut of about 1 acre on the opposite side of the property nearer homes (and nearer more deer that find refuge and food near those homes) was not nearly as successful in regenerating, especially for our oaks.  There, our deer have over-browsed both the stump growth (called copus growth) and any new seedling sprouting up.  Only the hardier hickories are regenerating on that cut and we've switched to planting white pines and white spruce to create a dark forest component which is also important habitat for a variety of game and non-game species.  Our 3rd cut, done two winters ago now, is also 5 acres in size and so far so good on that cut although we may turn part of it into a deep woods food plot.  

 

Whenever doing clearings in a mature forest, you must manage the deer browse pressure.  That typically means shooting more deer than you perhaps had been doing in the past.  Now that our cuts have successfully regenerated other than the one small cut, we have backed off shooting so many deer.  Three years ago and two years ago we took more than 9 deer off the 117 acre property each year, and this past season we only took 2 deer - one buck and one doe.  Plus we have the added bonus of having the state and NJ Audubon performing clearings on the adjacent WMA which helps spread out browse pressure on both properties.  Next winter we'll do one final clear cut of approximately 4 acres under the current 10 year Forest Stewardship Management plan.       

[Rusty]

Brian,  an interesting observation on the State's clear cuts next to yours is the role that the tree tops play in regeneration.  The loggers left the tree tops/slash, which protected the new growth from browsing.  Each tree top was like a little protected pocket with significantly better regrowth than the area surrounding it.

[Palawman30]

In Pa whenever there is a new clearcut that gets fenced the first tree species to take off is striped maple under the oak sprouts are high enough to push them out. Striped maple is not a preffered browse species. If deer numbers are low enough we get honey suckle, ask beech and even chestnuts

[Bucksnbows]

Brian,  an interesting observation on the State's clear cuts next to yours is the role that the tree tops play in regeneration.  The loggers left the tree tops/slash, which protected the new growth from browsing.  Each tree top was like a little protected pocket with significantly better regrowth than the area surrounding it.

Yes, and they did a better job of protecting their overall stump growth than we did on my property by doing so.  That is one of the things we have all been studying closely in our public/private partnership to improve early successional habitat.  We piled our tops over mostly just the oak stumps on the property I manage while NJ Audubon and the Division had their logger simply leave the tops where they fell.  And then we have watched closely the regeneration in the two sites to compare success.  Of note is that our plans aren't the same.  By that, my cuts are more for general game species habitat including deer while the cuts on state land are more for golden winged warblers, ruffed grouse and other ground nesting birds.