Deer yards are wintering areas used by white-tailed deer in the northern part of their range. In northern Michigan, deer yards typically consist of extensive stands of cedardominated (Thuja occidentalis) or mixed conifer swamps where thick evergreen overstories provide shelter from winter conditions. Forest and wildlife management in and around cedardominated swamps of the upper Great Lakes have created a nearly optimal interspersion of early-seral summer range and mature conifer winter range. For a variety of reasons which include favorable habitat changes, deer populations are today larger than those of presettlement conditions. We used General Land Office survey records from the 1840s to compare presettlement forest composition with present-day forest composition in two important deer yarding areas in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Except for tamarack (Larix laricina), woody plant species that are unpalatable to deer or tolerant of browsing have increased. Species that are palatable and intolerant of browsing have decreased. Ages of extant mature cedars indicate establishment during a period of low deer populations in Michigan. Change in forest composition has many causes, but deer populations encouraged by forest and wildlife management may contribute to a changing ecology in northern Michigan's conifer swamp communities, and may change the structure of plant communities in areas where deer use is concentrated.
The American Midland Naturalist has been published for 90 years by the University of Notre Dame. The connotations of Midland and Naturalist have broadened and its geographic coverage now includes North America with occasional articles from other continents. The old image of naturalist has changed and the journal publishes what Charles Elton aptly termed "scientific natural history" including field and experimental biology. Its significance and breadth of coverage are evident in that the American Midland Naturalist is among the most frequently cited journals in publications on ecology, mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology, ichthyology, parasitology, aquatic and invertebrate biology and other biological disciplines.
Simultaneously an international center for Catholic thought, a teaching-focused liberal arts college, and a dynamic hub for research and scholarship, the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame provides its students with an education that fuels their passion for learning while preparing them to make a difference in the world. The largest and oldest college in the university, Arts and Letters houses the divisions of the arts, humanities, and social sciences. It encompasses 21 departments, more than 40 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and a variety of interdisciplinary centers. Approximately 2,500 undergraduates and 750 graduate students pursue degrees through Arts and Letters programs; students from throughout Notre Dame enroll in thought-provoking Arts and Letters courses.
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The American Midland Naturalist
© 1996 The University of Notre Dame