Battue,
This biologist was with the West Virginia game department, and seemed pretty confident of recent research. I did minimal Googling and came up with the following links, among a number of others.
The article in the first link contains this pertinent quote: "Ironically, management of ruffed grouse and deer habitat has traditionally been considered as a “hand-and-glove” situation,since cutting of aspen and other fast-growing trees is done for both species. Grouse flourish where there is a mix of maturetrees and three to ten acre areas with dense growths of new trees used for brood-rearing. Deer also benefit from that type of habitat. But where there are too many deer, the new growth is eliminated and a grassy ground cover poorly suited to grousedevelops. Snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbit populations can be limited in a similar way."
https://www.wc4eb.org/wp-content/articles/MWC-DeerImpactOtherWildlife_pt3.pdfwww.wisconsinbirds.org/deerherbivory.htmWestern biologists have documented the same effects from the overgrazing of elk on quaking aspen thickets, some of the prime ruffed grouse habitat out here.
