WMU 3B should continue to be one of the better deer-hunting areas north of Interstate Route 80. Hunters should be able to find deer by scouting large public tracts such as SGLs No. 12, No. 13 or No. 57.

WMU 3A is a relatively small unit along the New York border. For the 2007-08 hunting seasons, its total harvest was 11,200 deer -- a decline of nearly 16 percent from the year before. Otherwise, and as with the other Big Woods units, there is relatively little public land.

LEADING UNITS
As usual, the leading WMUs for total deer harvest last year were wildlife management units 2D, 5C, 2A, 2C and 2B. Wildlife management units 2D, 2A, 2C and 2B are clustered around the Pittsburgh area in the Southwest Region and lower Northwest Region. It is all Appalachian Plateau terrain. Human populations vary from medium to heavy.

There is a medium amount of forest cover, but this area might better be described as checkerboard habitat -- a mix of habitat types including wood lots, farms and overgrown farms that make up a good share of some of the best deer habitat in the country.

Total harvests in these units ran from 19,700 to 27,200 deer.

In total, the 2007 harvest of 87,800 animals was a 12 percent drop from the previous year.

This harvest decline coincided with one of the most significant deer stories of 2007 -- an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD.

The source of this disease, fatal to deer, was literally blowing in the wind. It was carried by insects on winds blowing up from the south.

Usually, EHD in this magnitude does not reach so far to the north. But last year, it was detected as far north as Massachusetts. It was widespread in southwestern Pennsylvania, occurring among wild deer in Lawrence, Indiana, Allegheny, Beaver, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

How did the disease really affect the deer population? The answer is confusing.

"We now know a little bit more about what it did to hunters," Rodenberry said. "Typically, we look at the buck and antlerless success rates -- two of our indices to get a sense of what happened to the deer population as a result of that disease.

"This year, however -- based on survey work we did in that unit last spring before the commission meeting in April -- we learned that the disease very well may have affected the population.

"But it also affected hunters' willingness to kill a deer in that unit."

That survey indicated that there was less hunter participation, with hunters less willing to harvest a deer.

If last year's reduced harvest and hunter participation in the Western Region were because of EHD, then game lands in these counties might well be whitetail hotspots this year.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission plans to handle this situation by dropping antlerless allocations back to the levels of previous years, until biologists can better understand how the deer population was affected.

Rosenberry said that the commission will continue to recommend reductions in wildlife management units with special regulations areas, including 2B, 5C and 5D.

For more information about deer- hunting opportunities on public land in Pennsylvania, contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission, 2001 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9797.

You can also call (717) 787-4250, or log onto the agency's Web site at www.pgc.state.pa.us.