A hunter's cheat sheet

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry is publishing what you might call cheat codes for deer hunters.

Designed primarily for doe hunters armed with deer management assistance program permits -- but readily available to any hunter, chasing bucks or does, so long as he has a computer -- they are maps of timber cuts and wildlife openings on state forest and state park land.

In an era of lower deer numbers, they're shortcuts of sorts, pinpointing for hunters smaller sections of woods among the vast state forest and park system where deer might be found.

"By showing these areas on maps, we're trying to help hunters orient themselves to where they should be, or where they might want to be," said Doug Langford, a management forester for Forbes State Forest in Laughlintown.

"They are definitely good places to start looking for deer. They are where the deer are more likely to be concentrated."

The maps highlight clearcuts, shelterwood cuts, and salvage cuts, as well as the year the cut occurred. The location of deer fences are also marked.

All of the maps are tied to lands enrolled in DMAP. The bureau of forestry wants hunters to remove deer from those places so that desirable tree species like oak can regenerate without being fenced, said Wayne Wynick, assistant district forester for Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield.

That's not to say that they are overrun with huge herds of deer, he said. But they likely hold more deer than other sections of forest.

"We've got areas where there are no deer, though hunting pressure did not create that. If you see a deer there, it's got a backpack on and is carrying its lunch because there's simply no food there. You can't look at a forest of hay-scented fern and expect to see deer," Wynick said.

"These other areas tend to be a bit of an attractant for deer because by opening up the forest, these cuts allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor and create more lush vegetation, which in turn draws deer."

There's no doubt that timber cuts draw deer, said Bret Wallingford, a deer biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The vegetation that results from creating an opening in the forest can be within reach of hungry deer for six to 10 years or more, he said, depending on local conditions.

"Any place that you open up and allow sunlight down to the forest floor, you should be able to promote some growth, which in turn brings out deer. It's no different than putting a food plot in a wooded area," Wallingford said. "I would be surprised if you didn't find a lot of deer activity there."

Some cuts are better than others, Wallingford said. Cuts close to stands of thick bedding cover, like hemlocks -- or anywhere "deer feel more secure" -- which provide thermal cover in winter and refuge year round are best.

Timber cuts can be better in some years than others, too. Deer love mast like acorns and beechnuts and will feast on them when they are available. But in years of poorer mast crops, the woody browse in timber cuts is a powerful magnet for deer, Wallingford added.

The time of year and location of a cut can determine how heavily it gets used by deer, as well. A cut high on a mountain ridge may draw lots of deer early in the season, but fewer later, when snow forces deer to lower elevations, Langford said.

But cuts are definitely worth checking out, especially in big woods areas, Wallingford said.

"There are a lot of possibilities with clear cuts," he said.

Hunter's guide

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' maps of timber cuts on park and forest land can be found at www.dcnr.state.pa.us . Click on "deer management" on the right side of the page, then "deer management assistance program." That will get you to a listing of the DMAP areas for 2008.

Simply pick the district you want and download a PDF version of the map for that area.

To help hunters understand what they are looking at, Doug Langford provided these definitions of the various types of cuts:

• A clearcut is a an area where most of the trees, save for a few seed trees of desirable species, have been left. They are the most open of all cuts.
• A shelterwood cut is one where foresters remove only undesirable tree species, or trees with poor form. Left standing are lots of mast-producing trees like oak and cherry.
• A salvage cut is one where regeneration may be OK, but foresters remove damaged trees.

Article by Bob Frye,
Everybody Adventures, http://www.everybodyadventures.com

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