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Deer Management tags available on LH Authority Watershed

LOCK HAVEN — The Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) was developed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) to provide support to landowners who are still struggling with the results of deer damage on their property.

DMAP allows for additional antlerless deer tags to be available on particular properties – where a temporary reduction in deer numbers may be necessary to accomplish ownership goals.

The Lock Haven City Authority (LHCA) has been on a path to improve approximately 5,000 acres of forest that surrounds the City’s water sources.

The path began almost five years ago when the City Authority joined forces with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) by agreeing to a Working Woodlands Conservation Easement.

Since then, TNC has led the City Authority through the process of completing a forest management plan, becoming a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forest, and entering the world-wide carbon market through a carbon brokerage company in San Francisco, Ca.

A summary of the forest management plan, written by Appalachian Forest Consultants, can be found on the City’s website at: http://lockhavenpa.gov/government/cityauthority/forest/.

A main goal of the forest improvement plan is to improve the composition of the LHCA understory – small plants, seedlings, and saplings at or near ground level.

LHCA has been using EPA approved herbicides to kill undesirable invasive and competitive plants in the understory. These plants have been taking over the forest for decades.

Deer don’t eat these plants and the plants have a great ability to reproduce. Once the invasive plants are removed, seed from overstory trees will begin to germinate and the understory composition will improve.

This means the LHCA forest will begin to grow oak, poplar, maple, and hickory instead of fern, striped maple, multiflora rose, and barberry. A key component to sustainability is the ability to regrow a healthy forest. This can only be accomplished if a healthy understory is in place.

Enter the deer issue:

While it is probably obvious to most hunters in the area, deer numbers are down from their peak over 10 years ago.

However, because the LHCA understory has been unhealthy for many decades, deer numbers do not have to be too high for the deer population to have a negative effect.

The LHCA is investing in the health of its forest understory and in the near-term local hunters can help make the effort a success by harvesting additional antlerless deer on the property.

The additional deer harvest will only be temporary – while desirable seedlings are being established.

In the years to come, it is foreseeable that an abundance of desirable plants will fill the forest’s understory. A healthy understory can support a much larger deer population.

Natural resource professionals will observe improvements annually and will advise the City Authority on continuing or discontinuing deer reductions via the DMAP program.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has begun hunting license sales for the upcoming 2018/19 hunting season.

DMAP tags for the LHCA property are available from the receptionist on the second floor of City Hall, 20 E. Church St., Lock Haven. Once a hunter has a coupon, they take it to any location where licenses are sold and use it to purchase the antlerless tag.

If you have any questions about the forest management plan or the current operations, contact Mike Wolf who is the forestry consultant with Appalachian Forest Consultants overseeing the ongoing projects.

Mike can be reached at 814-659-1280 or mtwolf@atlanticbb.net.

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