White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands

Preface

This is a book on range management for white-tailed deer. The fields of range and wildlife management are closely related but have maintained a considerable degree of separation since their beginnings in the early twentieth century. In the region this book is concerned with, habitat and rangeland are synonyms. We hope that range and wildlife managers will gain a greater appreciation of the synergy between range and wildlife management from reading this book, and a greater appreciation for basic ecological principles that provide the theoretical framework for management. Most important, we hope that readers of this book will look at deer as a component of the ecosystem and understand that management should be ecosystem based. This book focuses on deer management in the dryland habitats of Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. Most of the books on white-tailed deer ecology and management deal with humid and subhumid environments where rainfall is relatively high and the environment is relatively stable. We deal with the least productive of white-tailed deer habitats, where long-term weather patterns are punctuated by periodic drought. Low rainfall and periodic drought, however, have prevented farming in much of the region, resulting in preservation of broad expanses of wildlife habitat in the form of rangeland grazed by livestock. Most of the landscape in the region within the scope of this book is ranching country. Livestock is an integral part of the region’s environment, history, and cultural tradition. We thank the reviewers of early drafts of several chapters of this book: Leonard Brennan, Robert Brown, D. Lynn Drawe, Charles DeYoung, David Hewitt, and Aaron Tjelmeland. We also thank Fred Bryant for his suggestions and support in writing the book. We thank Charles DeYoung, D. Lynn Drawe, David Engle, David Hewitt, Ron Masters, Donald “Chip” Ruthven III, Jimmy Rutledge, Russell Stevens, and David Synatzske for providing helpful information; and Ralph Bingham for assisting in writing appendix 3. Diana Doan-Crider adapted figures 1.3, 1.4, and 4.1; and Eric Redeker developed figure 1.2. ix Preface White-Tailed Deer Habitat ...