For the better part of 30 years, Alsheimer had been immersed in quality deer management. He was the first to admit there were times in the beginning when he wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing.
Traditions die hard in the Northeast, and the thought of managing land for quality deer was not an idea that was embraced by many New Yorkers during the early 1990s. Despite the drawbacks, Alsheimer kept the vision. Early on, progress was hard to see. But as the years passed, the QDM philosophy gained both momentum and acceptance when the public was able to see the results.
“QDM sounds great, so why doesn’t every state agency and hunter want to embrace the concept?” he once asked. “Some view it as threatening and others simply resist anything that smacks of change.
“Land and wildlife management is an energizing experience for some, but it can be a headache for others when they realize what it involves. This is why it’s important to understand QDM in terms of land, time, money and equipment before making a decision.
“For some strange reason, most hunters/landowners think they have to put together 1,000+ acres to have any kind of a QDM program. Not so. We did it on essentially 160 acres. The results were nothing short of incredible.”
When Alsheimer began practicing QDM in 1990, there was scant information available for small landowners who wanted to implement a QDM program. Because of this Alsheimer admitted he flew by the seat of his pants during the early years. He also often said the learning curve would have been a lot shorter had he not been the one breaking new ground in this area of deer management.
“Failure to plan is a plan to fail is something I’ve often said applies to everything in life,” he said. “It certainly applies to QDM, because a sound plan is the make-or-break ingredient. The better the plan, the better the results will be.”
BENEFITS OF QDM
- Deer population doesn’t exceed property’s carrying capacity.
- Improved buck-to-doe ratio.
- Older age-class of bucks.
- Improved habitat.
- Better hunting.
- Better landowner/hunter opportunities.
- Better understanding of property’s ecosystem.
- Feeling of accomplishment.
Charles J. Alsheimer was a preeminent expert on deer behavior and collaborated on groundbreaking research on the moon’s impact on whitetail breeding patterns. He authored seven best-selling books and hundreds of magazine articles on the whitetail. He served as field editor of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine for nearly 38 years and as host of Deer & Deer Hunting TV, which aired on the Outdoor Channel, before his untimely passing in 2017. His work on deer behavior was ahead of its time.
