As we drove into the lower end of the food plot, Dr. Fred Simonton and his wife, Mary Alice, pointed out a deer grazing on clover 100 yards away. As the truck slowed to a stop, the 8-pointbuck, antlers still clad in velvet, snapped up its head and gave us a long look before bounding away into the woods.

Ten years ago when Dr. Simonton purchased his property in Oconee County, seeing quality bucks was a rarity.  But for the past decade, Dr. Simonton has worked closely with the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA), the Wildlife Resources Division, and the Forest Stewardship Program to improve his 850 acres. The results have been dramatic. 

Not only has Dr. Simonton, a certified Forest Steward, vastly improved the quality of the resident deer herd, but managed his land to produce an aesthetically pleasing and healthy forest.  The Simonton property is a great example of how quality deer management and the Forest Stewardship Program complement each other and help landowners greatly improve their property for both hunting and timber production. 

But these improvements didn't happen overnight.  It took a lot of time, hard work, and experimentation by the Simontons, as well as the QDMA and Georgia Forestry professionals working with them, to achieve these management goals. 

After meeting the requirements of the Forest Stewardship Program, the Simontons sat down with Rick Hatten, now the state's Forest Stewardship program coordinator, to identify goals for the property.  "We talked about objectives first," Dr. Simonton said. "I wanted to place an emphasis on wildlife management, then aesthetics and timber. I liked that the program allowed me the flexibility to manage for my goals." 

A quick survey of the property showed that it, like most others in the Piedmont, had an overabundance of deer. While that may sound like a good thing for someone interested in deer hunting, overabundance is a huge problem. The land simply cannot produce enough food for the deer population. Overall deer condition, body weight, the ability to rear fawns, and resistance to disease suffers greatly. 

Kent Kammermeyer, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division and member of the QDMA, helped Dr. Simonton develop a deer management plan. A biologist and forester with the Forest Stewardship program developed a management plan addressing timber management, soil and water conservation and other resources. 

"There were just a ton of problems with the deer herd here," Dr. Simonton said. "First, we just had too many deer. The does had low body weights and the previous owners shot every buck they saw. We didn't have very many mature bucks."  Other problems included pine stands that were planted too densely, a lack of controlled burning, and limited winter foods for wildlife because of over browsing by deer. 

Following Kammermeyer's management plan, the Simontons did not shoot any bucks on their property for several years to improve the herd's male age structure. Even today, the Simontons do not harvest bucks younger than 3¹/2 years old. Not harvesting yearling bucks is one of the tenets of quality deer management. Passing on these young bucks allows them to grow into mature bucks with larger antlers. 

The Simontons did start to harvest more mature does. Though counter to traditional management techniques that sought to produce the maximum number of deer, harvesting an adequate number of mature does lowers overall deer density, reduces the population and frees up available nutrition. 

One of the QDMA's main goals is to provide hunters with biologically-sound information to help them better manage whitetails. Replacing older management practices with newer techniques that better address deer management needs is not always easy, but it is something to which the QDMA has devoted a lot of time and resources. 

The most effective management tool at Dr. Simonton's disposal is food plots. Food plots are not planted to increase the number of deer, but to provide high-quality food for the existing herd, improving their overall condition. Food plots also allow hunters to make better harvest choices because deer are more visible and ages can be determined using body characteristics. 

"There weren't any food plots on the property when we bought it," Dr. Simonton said. "Kent and I picked plants that could handle heat and drought, and produce high-quality forage for the deer". 

Now the Simontons have 46 acres of food plots on their property, 15 acres of which are planted year-round with Ladino, Arrowleaf or Redlands II clover varieties. These varieties are well adapted to the long, hot summers and droughts that have plagued Georgia for the past decade. They also produce at different times of the year, providing the whitetails on the Simonton property with high-quality forage year-round. 

Dr. Simonton also found that one of the keys to a successful food plot program is closely following recommended planting dates and liming/fertilizing rates.  "I don't even bother cranking up the tractor until I've gotten the results from soil tests," Dr. Simonton said. "When we first started, we didn't follow the recommendations as closely as we should have so our plots were not a successful as they should have been.  Our high-quality food plots wouldn't have been possible without the help of Kent and the reference materials available from the QDMA". 

In addition to clover, the Simontons plant grain sorghum for deer, turkeys, doves, and quail. Cool-season cereal grains are another food-plot favorite. Winter oats is another plant you will find in the Simontons food plots.  Early in its growth cycle when it is a tender grass, winter oats are a favorite of deer.  When the plant matures and heads out, the seed heads attract a wide variety of game birds and songbirds. 

Practicing quality deer management and following Forest Stewardship recommendations not only benefits whitetails, but greatly improves existing habitat for other game and non-game species.  This is another area where quality deer management and the Forest Stewardship program overlap.  Management techniques like controlled burns and thinning are beneficial to timber growth and wildlife.  Songbirds, and turkeys will flourish in healthy forests just like whitetails.

The degree to which a property is managed for timber or wildlife is addressed by the Forest Stewardship program when formulating a management plan.  After an intial consultation by Forest Stewardship personnel, both the Forest Stewardship Program and the QDMA can provide the additional resources for a property owner to make informed decisions about deer management.

"There are so many aspects to wildlife and forest management," Dr. Simonton said. "It has certainly been a learning process and the QDMA and Forest Stewardship Programs have provided me with the resources to make good decisions. 

In addition to food plots, the Simontons have planted over 200 trees on their property.  Dr. Simonton bought many of his trees from the Georgia Forestry Commission. Sawtooth oak, Chinese chestnut, plum, pear and apple are some of the varieties that can be found growing on the Simonton property.

"We found out pretty quickly that deer like to eat young trees" Dr. Simonton said. "It costs a little more, but we  protect all of our trees with a tree protector. That little plastic tube protects your trees from deer and acts as a miniature green house." 

There were several areas of planted pines on the Simonton property, none of which were doing very well.  "We went in and took those pines out and replanted the area at the right spacing with a better strain of pine," Dr. Simonton said.  "Other areas were thinned to produce the best results." 

Controlled burning is another management tool that benefits both wildlife and timber growth.  Dr. Simonton is on a 3-year rotation, burning different parts of his property each year to eliminate forest-fire fuel and produce plant communities beneficial to wildlife.

"The guys from the Forestry Commission came out and helped me decide what to burn," Dr. Simonton said.  "When we plowed the fire breaks, we by-passed the oaks and other mast-bearing trees important to wildlife." 

In addition to drought and army worms, the Simontons were paid a visit this summer by another forester's nightmare, the southern pine beetle. Foresters from the Georgia Forestry Commission helped Dr. Simonton diagnose and then address his beetle problem. 

"We had several areas on the property where the beetles killed several acres of pines," Dr. Simonton said. "We turned lemons into lemonade though. In the areas where we had to take out beetle-killed pines, we planted food plots." 

The result of all these hours spent on the tractor working on food plots, planting trees and controlled burning has been a dramatic improvement in the resident deer herd and improvement in timber stands on the property. 

Though the Simontons are very proud of the awesome, mature white-tailed bucks harvested in the past few seasons, they are more proud of the 10-pound increase in the average body weight of does harvested. Big, healthy does that have high-quality forage available all year are going to give birth to big, healthy fawns. 

When bucks have high-quality forage available, they are going to come out of a tough breeding season and winter in better condition. That allows them to grow a bigger set of antlers the next summer. 

The Simontons know their deer herd's condition is improving because of the data they take from each animal harvested from the property. Biologists take the harvest data and establish trends in the herd. That way, the Simontons are able to see improvements or declines and adjust their management plan accordingly.

Educational resources available from the QDMA help the Simonton's adjust their deer management plan each year.  "The hunting here has really improved; we've taken some bucks that score over 130 Boone & Crockett points," Dr. Simonton said.  "Though we've make vast improvements, the work doesn't stop.  Looking at the data we have, we can make small adjustments and keep improving. This is really a work in progress."

It took a lot of planning, hard work, and time to get to this point and everyday the Simontons face new management challenges.  And while the Simontons' goals may change with time, they have the resources available to them to meet those goals through their partneships with the QDMA and the Forest Stewardship Program.