| The Michigan Department of Military and Veteran Affairs (MDMVA) manage an array of natural resources at Ft. Custer Training Center (FCTC) in Augusta, Michigan, and their Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP) promulgates management goals of ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herbivory can influence the forest structure and composition. The hunter harvest period of white-tailed deer of approximately 75 days (the length of the season is subject to some minor annual variations) cannot take place since the FCTC functions as a military installation and its' needs dictate limited access to hunters, confounding the MDMVA's ability to meet their management goals. I evaluated the effectiveness of the current 5-day hunter harvest period by quantifying deer herbivory effects on structure and composition of forest types, and developed a suite of deer population indices. I captured, aged, ear-tagged and radio-collared 66 deer during winter from 2004 to 2008, and 14 neonatal fawns during spring in 2006 and 2007. The annual survival rate varied among the groups (adult females = 0.756, adult males = 0.493, yearling females = 0.443, yearling males = 0.379, fawns = 0.289). The short hunter harvest period is an effective and integral component of the ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation efforts of FCTC. |
