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Deer to blame for poor timber quality?

HunterB

HunterB

New Member
This article was in my local paper today. Thought it was interesting that the deer are to blame for the poor timber quality in Iowa….

www.telegraphherald.com

Abundance of venison in tri-state area comes at a high cost

The final numbers on the 2025 deer hunting season are in: 2,390 in Dubuque County, 4,248 in Clayton County and 101,941 for Iowa as a whole.
www.telegraphherald.com
 

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This is insanity!!!!! Well managed timber can sustain large deer herds + fantastic oak regeneration or a well managed forest. I skimmed through this but this guy is a fool. One sided view with no open mind.
Sure- a forest top ended & where junk has created a full canopy with no sunlight- takes very few deer to keep the natural browse down. But that’s a mismanaged forest!! Fix the forest & manage it correctly - both can prosper. Do zero to poorly managed timber & eradicate all the deer- u still will not fix the timber!!!!!!! Articles & views like this are so frustrating. So narrow minded. Deer are not the problem!! Poorly managed, not managed or raped timber is.
There’s so many holes in this “deer nip things off & the woods is full of Multiflora rose”. The 2 have nothing to do with each other!!!!! No deer- multiflora rose will still explode. & guess what- deer eat multiflora rose! That’s not the fault of the deer. I could go on & on. This is ignorance pure & simple. The author never caught the memo that are deer harvest is in half over the last 15 years and much of our state is low to void of deer. He may have forgotten a bit of history which has shown market hunting ruins the sport & has brought countless animals to the brink or to extinction.

I literally could spend 60 mins with a person like this- if they had an open mind & show them higher deer #’s with more oak regeneration than anyone would dream of. Because it’s managed properly & common sense is involved!!!! These views are scary when they inch any bit closer to impacting public policy.
 
Sligh1 said:
This is insanity!!!!! Well managed timber can sustain large deer herds + fantastic oak regeneration or a well managed forest. I skimmed through this but this guy is a fool. One sided view with no open mind.
Sure- a forest top ended & where junk has created a full canopy with no sunlight- takes very few deer to keep the natural browse down. But that’s a mismanaged forest!! Fix the forest & manage it correctly - both can prosper. Do zero to poorly managed timber & eradicate all the deer- u still will not fix the timber!!!!!!! Articles & views like this are so frustrating. So narrow minded. Deer are not the problem!! Poorly managed, not managed or raped timber is.
There’s so many holes in this “deer nip things off & the woods is full of Multiflora rose”. The 2 have nothing to do with each other!!!!! No deer- multiflora rose will still explode. & guess what- deer eat multiflora rose! That’s not the fault of the deer. I could go on & on. This is ignorance pure & simple.
I literally could spend 60 mins with a person like this- if they had an open mind & show them higher deer #’s with more oak regeneration than anyone would dream of. Because it’s managed properly & common sense is involved!!!!
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I couldn’t help but think “I sure would like to introduce this guy to Skip!” while reading. Pure nonsense!
 
I think we can all agree based on the structure and delivery of this article which wing the author resides in. Not to mention where the article came from. This information is 100% based on opinion and not fact or science. Typical for today’s media. VERY dangerous and irresponsible of media to post another propaganda article. To me the article try’s blaming even the loss of the Whip-poor-will on deer, crazy, I assume the loss of Monarch butterflies and song birds is also because of the big bad deer tearing up forests!? And to have such a one tracked mind to even suggest market hunting as a solution. The prime reason we all need to be able to think and logic on our own which I am guessing several in the market area of this article can’t do. YEARS of not managing our forestland after we degraded them will not be fixed on its own. And for the author to not realize herd numbers may be high in local areas while the state numbers are clearly down. Craziness.
 
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I had a farm in the u.p. of Michigan b4 i moved to iowa 2013 to 2018 and my neighbor up there was a logger ran a processer all his life and I was having some logging done on my 80 and he warned me the only things gonna grow back are "junk" trees! I asked why ? He said trees grow slow up here and there are too many deer ! They eat all the young trees before the get a chance to grow! So i seen it first hand! I had quite a few deer up there but nothing extreme! So I think its possible.

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Wi transplant said:
I had a farm in the u.p. of Michigan b4 i moved to iowa 2013 to 2018 and my neighbor up there was a logger ran a processer all his life and I was having some logging done on my 80 and he warned me the only things gonna grow back are "junk" trees! I asked why ? He said trees grow slow up here and there are too many deer ! They eat all the young trees before the get a chance to grow! So i seen it first hand! I had quite a few deer up there but nothing extreme! So I think its possible.

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There's no arguing deer will browse and set back new trees. In my opinion, the issues isn't the deer, the issue is the lack of new growth. Even if there were zero deer, our timbers aren't going to regenerate with new oaks on their own. The understory isn't being thinned and fire is gone from the landscape. Deer add to the issue but they aren't the root cause. I envision a world where timber can be managed naturally/properly and house a healthy deer/wildlife population while restoring oaks. For example, I'm doing some heavy TSI/weed tree removal in a mature bur oak timber. It's home to a lot of deer. The oaks that are able to sprout in the downed tree tops have a chance to survive, not only because they're protected from the deer but because I've opened up enough sunlight to allow them to grow. There could be so many new oaks that deer couldn't eat them all, in theory. That's my take anyway
 
I wonder…what’s more harmful to our 2.1 million acres of woodlands, which represent ~5% of Iowa's total land area…10,000 deer or a single bulldozer? Hmmm…
 
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