DoubleL, we do our browse surveys between the last week of March and the and the end of April depending on when he the snow leaves. We simply take notice of which plants are browsed and from experience we know that if they have eaten spruce or buckthorn or other low end (not preferred) browse species for this area, then we can expect to also see that all or most of the preferred browse like apple, sherry, sumac, briars, etc. was consumed. Generally the optimum browse level is thought to be at 50% consumption at that time of year. If less than 50%is remaining then there are too many deer for the amount of browse being produced on the property or said the other way the property is not producing enough browse for the amount of deer. If you have only ten percent or less preferred browse left then the property is being severely degraded by too much browsing and a program of herd reduction and extreme habitat improvement is needed.
Regarding where to put habitat improvements and more plots and such, that is a huge subject. Dogghr's random clusters thread is hitting some of it and a must read and with more to come I'm sure. And Steve Bartylla's book White-tailed Deer Management and Habitat Improvement is another must read (in my opinion) if you haven't read it already. You re basically asking how to landscape the property to house and feed the most deer in the healthiest way while encouraging them to stay on your property as much as possible so that they might live to maturity, and stay daytime active during hunting season.
I relate habitat/landscape design to garden design with the deer being your guest and the gardens designed for him. In that design would be paths for him to walk and focal points such as water holes, food plots, hinge cuts, clear cuts, etc. All these focal points can be loosely grouped in different areas of the property spaced far apart enough so that the garden could hold as many visitors in it as possible without them running into each other. Paths would meander along the directions of property lines for easy stand access yet far enough in from them so the deer are safe from neighboring lands and so that we do not disturb them in accessing our stands. Deer paths will also go from focal point to focal point utilizing natural focal points like ridge points, south slopes, saddles, brooks, swamp edges etc. as well as bringing deer through our manufactured focal points.Food plots are placed far enough off the property lines so that we don't create killing spots for someone else to take advantage of and are shaped to direction-ally point the deer back into the property rather than out of it.Hinge cuts and browse are encouraged throughout the landscape but near property lines it is done at only half a level so as not to encourage deer bedding in them. The bedding areas are often planned to be next to heavy browse cut over areas. These are all just simple ideas that when combined allow growing more deer food, housing more deer, growing older deer and even housing more older deer on a single property. It also creates a predictable and hunt-able flow of deer movement throughout the property.
Give me a pm and your e-mail again and I'll e-mail you a pic of our habitat plan that Steve had made for this property. While your property will be different than mine you will see what we mean about making the deer path where you want them too walk versus in the random (to us) way they choose to travel on their own.
