The suggestion that habit improvements are somehow unethical is likely the dumbest damned thing ever typed on the internet.
Planting crops for the purpose of attracting/holding deer on a property for deer season and calling it habitat improvement is a stretch at least here. What determines carrying capacity and survival come winter is available browse. Opening the forest canopy for increased browse production is far more beneficial than planting crops that are covered with 2 feet of snow and nutritionally worthless to deer come January.
Two feet of snow on the ground where Hastings lives?
You have a vivid imagination.
We often don't get a frost until November. Get a little snow every now and then. Melts off quick. Winter wheat, turnips, rye, oats, and clover provide food all winter. We also planted over 20 acres of nut bearing trees 1/4 of which are sawtooth oak that some years produce bountiful acorn crops that fall in September. We don't ever kill over 1 to 3 deer a year and lots of hogs. Mainly we like to see deer and feed various wildlife. Don't like hogs or killer canines at all.
