That all changed with the implementation of the 2003-2007 Deer Management Plan. When it went to the new management plan deer densities were no longer expressed n deer per forested square and included deer densities for ALL landmass and habitat types. Deer management was also changed at that time to being based on the health of both the deer and the forest health.

In 2003 the PGC claimed the habitat in 2G could support 15 DPSM, but they reduced the herd in 2G to just 8 DPSM. Can you explian why they reduced the herd in 2G to 40% below the carrying capacity of the forested habitat in 2G.

y using those two criteria, instead of the old deer per forested square mile method, the health of the deer was certainly better where they had farmland habitat. The forests were also in better condition where deer were doing a higher percentage of their feeding on farm fields and crops. Where farmlands provided for both better deer and forest health there was not as much effort to reduce the existing deer populations unless it was recommended by the Citizen Advisory Councils based on the human conflict side of the newer deer management objectives.

That is absolutely not true and proves beyond all doubt that you don't know what you are talking about. WMU 5 C , which had the second harvest harvest rate in DPSM had the worst regeneration rate of any WMU in the state even though it is located in an area with some of the highest quality of farm land in the state.

ORIGINAL: noodle one

I won't worry to much about turkeys, they can and will roost in trees for up to a week or longer without feeding. When they do start feeding they can feed on just about anything and every thing and survive. The big worry for turkeys is they need gravel to digest there food. If they can't get to the gravel through the ice crust, they can eat all the food they want and still die with a full crop with no gravel to digest the food.

 
You are perfectly correct. We know turkeys can sit in a tree with no food, other than a few buds they can get out of the tree, for up to two weeks and still survive provided they aren’t forced to fly out of that tree. Once they fly though they have to find some food to replace the energy they are expending. That is one of nature’s survival methods for the wild turkey. It is also one of the reasons we hate to see snowmobiles, ATVs and even people walking or driving into the prime wintering grounds during some winters when both deer and turkeys are locked into the wintering grounds habitats.
 
Everyone worries about the turkeys when we get some crust but the turkeys love the crust. The crust gives turkeys great mobility and as long as turkeys have mobility they will find all of the food and grit they need. They will find all kinds of seeds on top of the crusted snow that will sustain them and they can find enough grit in the stream edges, spring seeps or plowed and cindered roads to fulfill their winter survival needs. What really hurts turkeys is deep powdery snow with cold weather. First of all they expend too much energy pushing through deep snow for the limited food they can find. Then they get into the spring seeps or open creek areas looking for grit and food and get wet. After they are wet and start pushing though the deep snow they start forming ice balls under their tail until they can no longer get up into a tree to roost. Once that happens they are more likely to either die of exposure or become a predation mortality.
 
I have seen several sets of bobcat tracks working the areas with the most turkeys right now. I am sure they will get any turkey that isn’t healthy or paying attention to its surroundings. I haven’t seen any evidence of a capture yet but the snow is so deep I’m not walking too far through the woods checking for signs of predation either. All in all I am not seeing any signs of any problems at all for the turkeys this winter.
 
The deer are just now, within the past week, starting to come down off the ridges and plateaus so they are all still in good shape too. In fact a lot of the wintering grounds still don’t have the deer locked down from what I could tell in my patrols of the areas today. There are almost no deer tracks on the ridges right now, with lots of tracks in the bottoms but the deer are still remaining hidden during the day so things haven’t got bad yet. If these crusted snows don’t linger on or we get bunch more snow on top of what is already out there the deer in this area should be just fine. Hopefully the warming trends they are predicting will open things up enough the deer move back out of the wintering grounds.
 
R.S. Bodenhorn 

Everyone worries about the turkeys when we get some crust but the turkeys love the crust

I always have more action on my feeders when the snow stiffens up than I do when it's deep and powdery. There are some hemlocks a half mile below me along a creek bottom with some mixed hardwoods and they live in them until they can move around on top of the snow. There is also enough folks feeding the critters in the area that we have little winter mortality on anything other than what the coyotes and fisher get.