| Show Spring Range Investigation By DWIGHT BUNNELL Spring deer winter range investigations are now being made in the county Information Information Information mation gathered during these investigations will be used in management of the deer DATA collected from the four browse transects located in the county have not been completely analyzed as yet but some general observations observations observations can be made Use on the four transects varied from Crom about 50 to 80 percent Two of the transects showed heavy use between 70 and 80 percent This is probably the result of the deer being forced into the winter range early during the past season ilEA HEAVY VY snows and cold weather concentrated the deer into the winter ranges in early December The heavy use resulted from the deer being on the winter range longer rather than from more deer being in the area Eighty percent usage is much too too high if this high use continued continued contin contin- for several years However use on winter range by deer varies considerably considerably considerably con con- con con- according to the type of winter that area has As an example one of the transects that showed heavy use this past winter whiter showed only 40 percent use during last years mild open winter THE MEA HEAVY VY use that two of the transects received this past w winter r is n not reason for great concern unless this heavy use continues for the next few years In addition to the browse transects located in the county county county coun coun- ty nine pellet transects are also run in the county These transects given an measure of deer use on the winter range Each pellet transect consists of plots Each plot consists Of one-one one one e o of f a an acre THE TilE P PLOTS LOTS randomly within a are even se selected le Mel The same areas lea area each year Deer pellet are sam sampled pled are counted in each grow grou he plots lots Th The data of the Coll from the pellet transects collected allows us to com ute deer da dayS use per acre of winter One deer day use range p per would mean 5 acre that on one deer der spent one day on on one acre of winter range ONE HUNDRED deer rf dayS use could result t from ten deer using one acre for ten days or from fifty deer using an acre fo for two hyo d dand days alv i. i and so on Studies will be l completed this week |
