Description: Along the west coast of North America from northern California through southeast Alaska. Known for its dense rain forests of western hemlock, Sitka spruce and natural and commercial forests of Douglas fir. Clearcutting is common in commercial forests, and provides excellent habitat for mule deer for eight to 10 years after harvest when grass, forbs, shrubs and saplings are common. In the northern part of this region where winter snowfall can be heavy, it is important to retain stands of mature trees to intercept the snow.

Climate: A marine climate with cloudy days, cool temperatures, high precipitation from fall to spring, and a short, dry summer season. Precipitation ranges from 25 to 120 inches. Soils are coarse and nitrogen-poor.

The deer: Black-tailed deer are the dominant subspecies of mule deer. The deer are primarily nonmigratory, and are well distributed and occur at the greatest densities in early successional habitats in the central and southern part of the region. In the northern part of this ecoregion, deer numbers are greatest on coastal islands, where marine weather lessens the severity of winter. In the far north, winter snow may force deer to lower elevations. Black-tailed deer are often unable to meet their nutritional requirements year round. Fawns rarely breed, and pregnancy rates for yearlings vary greatly from year to year, but are generally low. Deer in this region tend to be older than in other regions because the amount of secure cover deer find in the dense forest limits hunter success.

Limiting Factor: The quality of the plants. Heavy rainfall and soils poor in nitrogen cause nutrients to leach from the soil, and plants have more moisture. Pound for pound, a deer consumes less nutrients while foraging in coastal rain forest than in other regions.

Recommendations:

1. Create more grass, forb, shrub and sapling communities to improve food quality.

2. Maintain forest canopies in places where snowfall is heavy.

3. Manage forests for high quality plant foods to allow for large harvest of deer to reduce overwintering populations, and thus reduce browsing on young conifers.

4. Survey for diseases and parasites.

5. Plant mast producing species such as oak in dry and southern areas.

6. Conduct small, cool controlled burns.