Aerial Survey Effort Results for the Elk State Forest - Dents Run
| Area Information: |  |
|
| Elk County | ||
| PGC WMU 2G | ||
| 4,028 acres | ||
| 6.29 square miles | ||
| Deer Information: | ||
| 77 deer | ||
| 12.2 deer / sq. mile | ||
Habitat Condition: Very Poor
The image below is an infrared aerial photograph of the landscape, with the deer survey data superimposed on top of it. It is not the imagery obtained from the survey flights. The deer survey flight footage was interpreted, the deer locations were plotted, and the results were added to the image below, along with state forest and flight area boundaries.
Click the image below for a larger picture
Located in southern Elk County, this area is 4,028 acres (6.29 square miles), and falls within WMU 2G. The area was enrolled for two years in the DMAP program as DMAP Area number 54. This area is steep, but has good access via gated roads used to maintain the many acres of foodplots. The survey, completed on April 14, 2005, detected 77 deer at an area-wide minimum density of 12.2 deer per square mile.
Deer observed on this location were found concentrated around the foodplots and some recent timber harvest areas.
One part of this survey was designed to test the precision of FLIR in the conditions typical of Pennsylvania's forests. Over a two-day time period, this area was surveyed four times completely, yielding results of 10.0, 11.6, 11.1, and 12.2 deer per square mile. Elk were also observed on all four surveys, with similar repeatability.
Pellet surveys of the Dents Run survey area yielded an estimate of 19.6 deer per square mile overwinter, somewhat higher than the observations using FLIR.
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