The last part of the evening was spent watching a great video by the Quality Deer Management Association called ... .....Let Him Go So He Can Grow.... It focused on deer health and antler development and some information on QDM. Three things that stood out to me were.... #1... Each time we put a deer in our sights we are about to practice our own style of deer management.. #2... "Dead deer do not grow" #3... We (hunters) must harvest more does than bucks. This will keep the herd in balance with habitat and with itself and allow for more bucks and older healthier deer and happy hunters all enjoying the same good habitat.. other animals and birds will enjoy the better habitat too... |
Some interesting points that were discussed at the meeting
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FOOD PREFERENCES ---
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We saw almost absolutely nothing growing in the 6 inch to 6 foot area. You could walk and see at least 150-250 yards in front of you on the entire walk. Within about 150 yards of some homes we discovered quite a bit of "Trout Lillies" growing thru the dead leaves. As for new growth of ANYTHING...that was about it except for the hedged species I showed above. There was quite a bit of witch hazel growing in that 6" to 6' area but not much else... What about Oaks and Maples, preferred species... We were walking on dead red, white and pin oak leaves about 80% of our trip. I found some acorns (pin oak) that were cached near the trunk of a Ironwood tree, Also some Shagbark Hickory nuts and shells in a few spots... No Oak or Maple trees in that 6" to 6' area growing anywhere. No new growths from 6 inches to 6 feet of other prefered or non-preferred trees AT ALL were noticed. We also found no Striped Maple on our walk, which I found interesting because I can not walk anywhere around my home area and NOT find it. Red and Sugar Maples were present but all in the mature state.. no seedlings of saplings of these species either. We found several deer trails that were about 1 to 3" inches deep.. definite signs of major usage... We found a spot where there were wings from a turkey. Discovered a "scat pile" from a Coyote, which we were told were also on the rise in Tresaure Lake.. We found part of the pelvis bone and the whole rear leg attached (bones). I suggested we cut the bones in half and see what the marrow looked like... we found the marrow was milky white . This means the deer DID NOT starve to death during the winter. Our guess was hit by a car. Our section was located near the stables and interstate 80 was the border on the other end. We did NOT find any other bones in that area so we all assumed it (the one leg) was dragged their by a predator. We did not see any deer or wildlife. In fact I never even noticed a bird. The sounds of the woods on this walk were limited to us talkiing or the sound of traffic on I-80...Other than that the woods were silent... another thing I never find around here. One group found a jaw bone of a deer and it was aged at 2.5 years of age. Another group said they spotted 10 deer running.. then noticed someone's dog was chasing them. |
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