periods of hardship resulting from severe winter weather. Most of the work 

 entails the removal of mature growth to encourage browse production. In 1964 

 the following growth acreages of yarding areas were treated. 



Forest stand improvement funds of the Timber Branch have financed most 

 deer range improvement projects to date. Results of the first few years' work 

 have been most encouraging and deer have utilized a major proportion of the new 

 browse which has been produced. Many foresters are interested in this type of 

 habitat manipulation and they are now in a position to recommend specific forest 

 treatments in the areas important to deer. Commercial timber operators have also 

 co-operated in modifying their operations to benefit deer; hemlock stands which 

 are exceptionally valuable as winter cover have been spared, for instance, where 

 they occur within important deer yards. 



Proper timber management of all important deer yards will be essential if 

 deer hunting of reasonable quality is to be maintained. 



Moose Management 



Moose hunters in Ontario continue to enjoy good moose hunting although 

 success rates were slightly lower than in 1963. Average success rates for resi- 

 dents and non-residents were 24.5% and 50.9% respectively for the Province, 

 both exactly 2.0% lower than the previous year. 



It is surprising that the decline was not more severe. During October, when 

 almost 70% of the total hunting effort takes place, extremely wet, cold weather 

 descended over most of the north country and made hunting conditions very 

 difficult. 



Moose in Ontario continued to attract a large number of hunters. Licence 

 sales exceeded 43,000 last fall with about one-sixth of this total purchased by 

 non-residents. 



For the first time since 1951 when the season re-opened following a two- 

 year closure, licence sales declined — from 46,951 in 1963 to 43,596 in 1964. 

 However, almost 3,000 licences were sold south of the French and Mattawa in 

 1963. This area was closed to moose hunting in 1964, and 1,244 fewer licences 

 were sold. Thus the "true" decline in sales was in the order of 2,200 licences. 

 Moose licence sales for selected years are as follows: 



Table 4 



MOOSE LICENCE SALES IN ONTARIO 



The total calculated kill of moose, determined from post season mail surveys, 

 was 11,818 which was a decline from the previous year. The decrease was due 

 in part to reduced licence sales, in part to the closure of the season south of the 

 French and Mattawa, and in part to the slightly lower hunter success prevailing 

 in 1964. Table V shows resident and non-resident moose harvest data taken from 

 hunter surveys in 1964. 



31 



