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While it will take some time before Pennsylvania Game Commission staff know if a new program aimed at directing hunters to recent timber harvests that attract deer is working, they are encouraged with recent results.
The Deer Hunter Focus Area concept was implemented before the start of the 2015-16 deer season to encourage hunters to visit areas on state game lands where habitat work resulting in forest regeneration may attract more deer. Focus areas also include improved access and the locations are identified on a map on the PGC website (pgc.pa.gov).
There are nearly 20 focus areas on game lands in the northeast region, including locations on SGL 57 along the Luzerne and Wyoming county border, SGL 55 in Columbia County, SGL 149 in Carbon County and SGL 13 in Sullivan County.
Warren Harris, Game Commission forester for the Northeast Region, said while it’s too early to tell if the program is working to protecting regeneration from deer browsing, he’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from hunters.
“They’re happy about the increased access to these areas and they are finding deer,” Harris said. “It makes sense because the areas we’re enrolling in this are places with a recent timber harvest or an active harvest, where there are either buds on the tree tops left behind or sprouts and regeneration.”
Foresters monitor all timber harvests, including those in focus areas, very closely at all stages of regeneration. Harris said they will do an informal walk-through of an hour one year after a timber harvest, and in two years a formal regeneration analysis is conducted, looking at factors such as species diversity, number of tree seedlings, undesirable and desirable tree species and evidence of deer browsing.
David Gustafson, chief of the Forestry Division within the PGC’s Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management, said each focus area will remain in existence at variable timeframes because of factors are different in each area. The key to determining if a focus area is ready to come out of the program is when the height of regeneration is at a point where deer can’t have an adverse impact.
“It all depends on the response of the vegetation and the deer pressure,” Gustafson said. “There is no set time period.”
Harris added the primary concern is the early stage of regeneration right after a timber harvest.
One benefit that has been realized from the focus areas is a cost. The PGC previously erected fences around areas where timber harvests occurred to keep deer out. Now that they’re relying on hunting and not fences to manage deer, the cost has greatly decreased.
“That’s the goal,” Gustafson said. “There is a small added expense of keeping the roads in better condition than what we would normally need, but in the long run our goals are to not only create better habitat and help hunters have better access and hunting experience, but also to eliminate the cost of fencing as much as we can.”
Harris added building and maintaining fences was not only costly, but took a considerable amount of time as well.
He predicted there will be additional Deer Hunter Focus Areas as the agency continues to conduct timber harvests on game lands.
“We’re doing over 2,000 acres a year in the northeast. We’d like to cut a lot more but we’re limited in number of employees and how much product the timber industry can absorb,” Harris said. “Every year, though, we should be seeing new focus areas established.”
