Here is a question- Can you, and if so, what can you, do to improve the deer herd on public land? I live in a state where it is legal to bait year round, even on public land and wma's...but this year the state changed up several of the fields in one particular wma. Most of this wma is woodlands, with a large stream, but about 1/4 of that land is fields, which used to be all corn fields. This year, they destroyed 3 of the corn fields, for native grass blend (maybe crp type field, as it is also a well used pheasant hunting area). I'm not opposed to feeding/supplementing deer/turkey year round on this wma, as while many people hunt it for pheasant, I haven't seen or heard of many people deer hunting it. What do you think is feasible if anything short of contacting the state and see if they are willing to put in deer specific food plots? Spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Id find a dirty spot you can hunt that will be hard for others to find and put out some apples and corn then just wait and see. If deer hit the bait just continue with that.
in nj, baiting is legal for deer, to hunt over or otherwise even on public land. i'm not even necessarily looking to put some stuff down to kill over, but to see whats their, and then once I know what areas they are in, to give them a boost, because they took a decent chunk of food away, and acorns haven't been plentiful.
DNR doesn't give a rats butt about deer anymore because they are so thick and plentiful. If they think they are doing the pheasants a favor by planting NWSG and removing the corn (I know they do think that) then they are ignorant. They will see a decline in the pheasants by taking that corn out of the environment. They would have been better off planting milo or sudan grass annually. Anyway as to the question....I like KillerC's reply.
