Effects of partial cutting in winter on white-tailed deer

Thin trees within forest

A site comparison study in 1996 of forest in Quebec, Canada (St-Louis et al. 2000) found that, following tree thinning through a partial forest cut aimed at increasing browse availability, white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus made proportionally greater use of the cut area than of the forest as a whole. Deer use of the cut area (estimated at 15,170 deer-days/km²) was higher than in the forest as a whole (estimated 2,808 deer-days/km²). However, deer did not move home ranges and only animals whose ranges overlapped the cut area used it. A partial forest cut, across 43 ha, was made in January–February 1996. This thinned the forest by removing approximately 40% of deciduous tree stems (with conifers and understorey trees retained). Deer use of the cut area was determined by counting pellet groups, on 27 and 28 April 1996, in eighty-four 2 × 40-m plots. This was compared with estimated pellet density in the whole forest area (total 25 km²) that was based on pellet production from an estimate of the overall deer population. Habitat selections of 30 individual deer were monitored by radiotracking, in January–April 1996.

(Summarised by: Nick Littlewood)