Originally posted by DarrinG: On much of the public lands here I feel the #1 problem is habitat (or lack thereof). Back in the 80's and early 90's I saw a healthy population increase in whitetail deer on a couple areas I hunt regularly, and I credited it to one major reason...timber harvest. The Forest Service used to manage the lands with Foresters who knew what they were doing, and allowed selective timber harvests on strategically planned areas. Soon afterward they caved in to the squeaky wheel groups who protested, got on the news at every chance and wrote letters upon letters demanding the Forest Service quit "raping" the forests and murdering trees. Its been many, many years since I've seen the FS in my area do any logging operations. Now we have tall, mature forest with little to no undergrowth and browse, and the wildlife populations (deer, ruffed grouse, turkey, rabbit, etc) have steadily been in a downward spiral population-wise. IMO, I think its a direct result of poor planning on the FS and giving in to the touchy-feely emotions of tree-huggers over sounds land/wildlife management.