Logging Impacts on Deer

[Peter Smallidge]

I saw a question about the impacts of logging on deer, specifically concern by hunters who lease from an active forest management owner.  Here is a response offered by Dr. Paul Curtis...Does anyone have related observations or experiences?

Pete

[Quoted from Dr. Paul Curtis, 10/2/2013]

Once a female deer establishes a home range, they tend to be very fixed on the landscape for many years.  This past winter, I recovered ear tags from two female deer that were about 13 years old, and were still in the same area where I tagged them in 2000-01.   About 80+% of female deer will establish their home ranges near their mother (rose petal hypothesis), and 10-15% will disperse some distance (5 to 10 miles), usually as yearlings.  Typical home range sizes for adult females is about 100-150 acres in suburbia, and about double that in rural woodlands.  Active timber harvest might displace a deer for a few days, but they will come back to their home range very soon. 

 Young bucks generally disperse away from the area where they were born.  About 80-90% of bucks leave the area as yearlings, and average dispersal distance for tagged males is about 10-12 miles in central NYS.  However, I had one tagged buck from Ithaca go 50+ miles before it was eventually road-killed near Geneva.  Once bucks establish a home range, they tend to settle into the area for several years.  However, their home ranges are much larger than those for female deer; maybe a square mile or more.  Again, any logging impacts would probably last a short while. 

 In the long run, logging will increase new plant and tree growth, and probably attract deer to the area for several years post-harvest.

[Tim Levatich]

We've seen active browsing on fresh twigs of felled tops.  So this might be an immediate food bonanza for deer in winter.   It seems likely that a freshly harvested area would be a good place to hunt.

However, this abundant browse would lose its freshness fairly quickly, maybe over a few weeks.  Deer density would return to normal, depending on the richness of normal browse in the area, until the understory responds to increased light.  Then, more food and cover might attract and support higher deer numbers.

Of course, if the understory is mostly beech, or other less palatable species, deer numbers might remain low after the freshness of the felled tops expires.

[Lewis E. Ward]

Hello Tim,

In the past I've cut maple and other deer browse species in the late fall and later while hunting noticed that I unintentionally attracted deer to the the area to browse.  Seems like a good strategy to conitnue lowering the deer population while before the seedlings sprout in your openings. we have learned that reducing the deer population before you harvest he imber is critical to the long range goals of forest management.

Good lucj deer hunting. I got a doe last week with my flintlock Will go out after lunch before Thanksgiving dinner laer today.