Deer expert Dave Moreland shares years of whitetail knowledge.
I looked across the forest floor, and all I saw was a sea of green. A broken canopy, one of the many lingering remnants of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, allowed sunlight to beam down to the detritus that is the organic base of every chunk of woods on the planet. From it, life sprang upward, shrouding the lower trunks of remaining trees in a thick understory that was almost impenetrable.
But where I saw green, Dave Moreland saw plants. He alternated between walks, squats and crawls to examine preferred deer browse like American beauty berry, strawberry bush and ti ti as well as the stuff deer don’t touch unless they’re just about starving to death.
From his investigation, Moreland was able to estimate the status of the deer herd on the small Washington Parish tract and make some harvest and management recommendations to achieve our goals.
For landowner Chris Ginn and me, the walk with Moreland through the woods we hunt was like taking a tour of a rocket ship with a NASA engineer. He pointed out things we never would have seen if given a month in the same area, and the experience altered forever the way Ginn and I scout for deer.
Now hunters all across the state can learn the same things we did from Moreland’s expertise. Louisiana Whitetails is a fantastic book that explains the deer hunting and stocking history of the state – after all, you can’t know where you’re going without knowing where you’ve been – and gives managers outstanding recommendations for growing the herds they want.
Moreland is a Louisiana native who cut his teeth hunting anything that moved in the woods behind his house, and earned his professional stripes managing the state’s deer herd for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
He’s forgotten more about deer than I’ll ever know. Now, with the release of Louisiana Whitetails, Moreland’s knowledge is in print, easily accessible by anyone who’s ever dreamed of growing and hunting bigger bucks from the Sabine to the Mississippi and from the Mississsippi to the Pearl.
The book retails for $19.95, and is the best investment you’ll ever make to ensure you grow big bucks on your land and put yourself in their path.
To order, visit the online Sportsman Store or call 800.538.4355.
