In the Allegheny National Forest, the United States Forest Service is confronted with the problem of supporting an unbalanced sex ratio in the deer herd on an overbrowsed range. Under an archaic buck rule only a distressingly small percentage of the deer population contained within the boun daries of the forest is legally huntable during the open season, and the big management problem centers around an inade quate harvest of the deer. Poor hunter distribution, which re sults in a large concentration of hunters in some areas and too few in others, is also a serious problem wherever deer hunters take to the woods; and on the Allegheny National Forest despite relatively flat topography, an adequate road system, and miles of pipe line and power line rights-of-way to hike over, hunters tend to remain near the highways and seldom venture into the back country. As a result, the harvest of deer is not uniform throughout the forest. In the State of West Virginia, Game officials report that hunters crowd cer tain portions of the range, while other areas where hunting conditions are equally good are ignored.

Unfamiliar terrain and oft told tales of “lost” hunters makes the average person wary of losing sight of the highway and his parked car, or leaving the valley in which his camp is located. Few hunters have taken the time or made any effort to learn to use a compass and to read a topographic map. I can recall only one instance where a topographic map of the locality was hanging on the wall of the hunting lodge. This was in the Northwestern portion of the State of Maine where roads in the woods were infrequent and an overlay marking several blazed trails had been drawn on the map. The visitor who studied the map and confined his route to a blazed trail could travel through the woods with confidence to his des tination. It is entirely possible to sit comfortably at home and lay out a day’s hunt in the deer range on a United States Geo logical Survey topographic map, just as you plan your auto mobile route on a highway map or locate a definite place in a city or town by the use of a street map. With a little practice you can look at a topographic map and visualize the hills and valleys, the streams, and road system of the area in which you intend to hunt. Archery Equipment - Read More.