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North GA Deer Study
- Thread starter AliBubba
- Start date
BornToHuntAndFish
Senior Member
Fyi...
Thanks for the heads up. Looking forward to what we learn from the study to hopefully help improve North Georgia whitetail populations.
BornToHuntAndFish
Senior Member
Here's some info we sent out a few months ago:
https://georgiawildlife.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/research-highlight-north-georgia-deer/
GEORGIA WILDLIFE, HUNTING, RESEARCH
Study Spotlight: Fawn and Food Research in North Georgia
February 22, 2018
Appreciate it, Sir. Expecting it to be very interesting & educational following study updates & results over the next few years.
The mtn man
Senior Member
It just so happens that doe fawning season coincides with the time of year that there is basically zero forage for bears. This time of year there is nothing except greens, and bugs. Polk is not ready, no blackberries, in fact, the habitat that we have in the mountains does not typically support a great deal of berries anyway. Add that to the fact that there are tons of bear, fawns are easy to catch, and bears love to eat fawns, I'd bet a bear will eat every fawn it runs across. Also there have been too many does shot over the past 20 years.
bany
Senior Member
I wasn’t insinuating anything about the study only a mans observation. As to say unless you witnessed the act of nature the perps would leave no trace.
tree cutter 08
Senior Member
My thoughts exactly! When bear numbers went up, deer numbers started coming down.
Timberman
Senior Member
Everybody knows but won’t acknowledge the gorilla In the room-lack of early successional habitat. Put the NF on a 70-80 year rotation except for sensitive areas-problem solved-but many more problems exacerbated...it’s a people problem...
AliBubba
Senior Member
There is a project called the Coopers Creek Watershed Project. See link below.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/conf/notices/?cid=FSEPRD490491
It's my understanding, that the objective of the study is to improve/create wildlife habitat in this area. CK can probably shed more light on this.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/conf/notices/?cid=FSEPRD490491
It's my understanding, that the objective of the study is to improve/create wildlife habitat in this area. CK can probably shed more light on this.
The mtn man
Senior Member
Thats great for coopers creek, but doesnt help North ga. Mountains outside of there.
AliBubba
Senior Member
My thinking/assumption is that if the outcome of the project is positive, the same can be applied to other areas.
The mtn man
Senior Member
I sure hope your right, but times a wasting, we ain't getting any younger.
Dana Young
Senior Member
Old growth timber is the main problem . deer need browse . old growth timber doesn't provide mch . Its good for bear and hogs but not deer.
ripplerider
Senior Member
Exactly. First the project has to be completed. It will take years for deer numbers to rebound in those areas (hopefully they will, the project got watered down from it's original concept). Then the next project has to be proposed, meetings held with the public, etc. etc. It's a long drawn out process to improve habitat for deer in the mountains. We may never see the results ourselves. Maybe our kids will. I hope I'm wrong about this.
I think most don’t understand the predator/prey relationship. Yes predators will hunt and kill prey, but I don’t think it’s the numbers people think. What predators do if they don’t make a kill is constantly harass the prey. If you are constantly harassed every time you wanted to have a little alone time with your significant other you’d never get to have that alone time. Hopefully most can follow this, lol.
Another problem I see is everyone will deer hunt, but not everyone wants to predator hunt. So as the deer are being killed by hunters and killed/harassed by predators, we end up with less deer and of course, more predators. Now I know I’ll get a lot of responses here on how I do this and I do that, but look at the number of deer hunters vs the number of predator hunters and you’ll get my point.
The only thing I see the State responsible for is timber management. I have no say or interest what goes through on up North, but down here they have adopted a Quail Management practice and honestly after one year I can see a difference in the areas they have implemented the practice.
The State has given us (hunters/sportsmen/women) the necessary means to control our population and they are working on the habitat portion...so what’s the problem? If you have low deer numbers take care of predators and shoot less deer. If you have too many deer...shoot more. I’ll shoot deer but I’m more into turkeys, so any nest raiders and other big predators are managed accordingly. Quit relying on the State to fix everything. Let them take care of the only part we can’t control...habitat.
Another problem I see is everyone will deer hunt, but not everyone wants to predator hunt. So as the deer are being killed by hunters and killed/harassed by predators, we end up with less deer and of course, more predators. Now I know I’ll get a lot of responses here on how I do this and I do that, but look at the number of deer hunters vs the number of predator hunters and you’ll get my point.
The only thing I see the State responsible for is timber management. I have no say or interest what goes through on up North, but down here they have adopted a Quail Management practice and honestly after one year I can see a difference in the areas they have implemented the practice.
The State has given us (hunters/sportsmen/women) the necessary means to control our population and they are working on the habitat portion...so what’s the problem? If you have low deer numbers take care of predators and shoot less deer. If you have too many deer...shoot more. I’ll shoot deer but I’m more into turkeys, so any nest raiders and other big predators are managed accordingly. Quit relying on the State to fix everything. Let them take care of the only part we can’t control...habitat.
C.Killmaster
Georgia Deer Biologist
The state has no control over timber management on the national forest. The Forest Service has trouble being proactive with timber management due to some groups that oppose timber harvest.
