Originally Posted by cartervj
I’ve made mention before. If I recall correctly QDMA made mention in their magazine years ago. Oldercutiver sto young pins could hold 60 per square mile.
Managed pines or 5-10 yr old pines 40 per square mile
Open hardwoods 20 per square mile

No one I ask seem to recall this or any similar study. Makes sense in a way especially in the south.

I know that squirrels migrate to pines to eat cones when acorns are sparse. A hardwood tract is a desert when the acorns are gone in the dead of winter
There’s no doubt that understory quality drives deer health and carrying capacity. That’s kinda the point I’m getting at. Hunters expect deer numbers to be what they were years ago when timber markets were highly active and robust, deer populations expanding and reproducing without coyotes, etc. It’s not like that now.