north vs. south

C.Killmaster · Sep 29, 2017

NCHillbilly said:
That's a lot of fawns.

What would you say the rough carrying capacity per square mile is for typical mountain national forest land with no logging going on?

I would guess 15 or 20 per square mile based on forage availability, but cover is far more limiting. We've actually seen an increasing trend in body weights and antler measurements despite the decline in forage as the forest matured. They are far below carrying capacity.

Throwback · Nov 21, 2017

C.Killmaster said:
During the late 1980's and all through the 1990's, most of the state had an overabundance of deer. .

i don't think a lot of people who want it to go back to that time period population wise understand it was a OVERPOPULATION which means "too many". Yes it was nice to see 30 deer a morning but I also hit 3 deer in a year in my truck and a garden was out of the question.

Down4Count · Nov 21, 2017

Deer are second to income on our property. Land is an investment, if it's not making money its costing money. Family property in Evans and Liberty 650 acres between 2 plats. Now, the hunting club is another story, we pay to hunt that so Deer is number one. Liberty/Mcintosh county 4500 acres, 15 members we have had this lease for 8 years. Usually shoot between 50-70 does and 20-30 bucks (6 point or better) every year. Typically see between 5-10 deer per sit. Most clubs are over crowded, like said in previous post all about pressure 2 and 4 legged type.

dixiecutter · Nov 21, 2017

Killmaster nailed it. Piedmont is ok for deer. And coastal plains ag is ok for deer. The areas where the two are combined is golden. Forrests to hold large deer heards next to farmland to support them.

Killer Kyle · Nov 21, 2017

C.Killmaster said:
It's habitat and land use driven. The Georgia Piedmont has always been a deer factory because it has much more edge habitat and more fawning cover. Fawn recruitment rates have always been higher in the Piedmont than the rest of the state and still are. While agriculture certainly makes bigger deer, there's less escape/fawning cover and those areas just can't support the same density. Lack of escape cover can also be caused by closed canopy forest shading out ground level vegetation such is the case with SE GA and the mountains.

The following pictures in order of appearance are the Piedmont, Upper Coastal Plain, Mountain, Lower Coastal Plain, and Buffalo County Wisconsin (most B&C bucks in N. America). In the last picture, all the non-forested land is agriculture and highly productive soils. When you have the perfect mix of food and cover, you get both lots of deer and really big deer.

Took the words right out of my mouth! Excessive Ag land means less edge, less diversity, lack of cover, and monoculture crops. When that food is gone, it's gone. With less edge, deer are left figuring out what to eat the remainder of the winter. There are always exceptions to every scenario, of course, and those exceptions can provide great numbers of deer and quality habitat.

Thanks for the visuals, Killmaster. Visuals often work better than explanations!

north vs. south

C.Killmaster

Georgia Deer Biologist

Throwback

Chief Big Taw

Down4Count

Senior Member

dixiecutter

Eye Devour ReeB

Killer Kyle

Senior Member

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