• Bissonette, John
  MAine Agricultural Experiment Statin and University of Maine at Orono
  

Deer winter habitat management as been a thorn in the side of state and provincial game departments for several decades. Much research effort and many dollars have been spend on deer studies during the past several decades to amass an amount of qualitative and quantitative data unsurpassed for any other game species in North America. Yet, deer management continues to engender considerable debate. A contributing reason, perhaps, is the nature of our "laboratory": the out-of-doors. Biologists are able to control few of the factors that strongly influence the fluctuations in deer numbers in their natural environment. Likewise, seldom do we have unlimited funding, manpower, or the time to explore pressing questions fully. AS a result, data sets are often incomplete, and analysis unsatisfactory. Ambiguity of interpretation is the norm.