"The deer herd on Holton Creek is staying about the same," Johns noted. "With the population so high and the harvest so heavy, we see a lot of deer coming out of there, but not necessarily a lot of big deer."

The hunts on Holton Creek are different from those on most other WMAs because they're mobility-impaired hunts.

"Therefore, both bucks and does are legal to take, so you have a more balanced sex ratio," Johns asserted. "This probably results in a little higher quality deer."

The habitat on Holton Creek is composed of basically river bottom hardwoods, such as pignut hickories, swamp chestnut oaks and other typical river swamp trees.

"It's not necessarily good for deer year 'round, but it's good for deer in the fall," Johns said. "I think that's one reason we see elevated harvests on the area. We get a lot of deer on nearby properties coming into the river bottom and taking advantage of the mast crops that are there."

Located in northeast Hamilton County on the Suwannee River, Cypress Creek is a small area that's a lot like Holton Creek.

"It's a swamp habitat environment, with a lot of hardwoods and mast-producing trees in the area," Johns said. "It has a real tall overstory, and there's a lot of variety in that area for the deer. In the past, a lot of big deer have come out of there."

However, because Cypress Creek is such a small area, biologists don't do any track counts or other surveying for the deer.

"We control the number of hunters by quota permits through Tallahassee," Johns explained. "But we really don't know what's coming off the area just now."

There are a couple of hunt clubs that border the upland portions of the WMA, making it difficult for the public to gain access to the area from there.

"There's only one road on the very southern end of the area," he added. "The management area is very narrow and long, and you can only park on the one end of it. Most of the hunting pressure is on that one end.

"There are a few trails up through the area, but most people don't explore them much," the biologist continued. "Access is just very limited since there aren't any public access points along any major road."

"We've been doing a lot of prescribed burning to help the habitat," biologist Gerald Williams offered. "Since we've been doing that, we've been seeing a significant increase in the number of large deer. Also, we've been planting food plots for the deer."

Biologists have been planting food plots for about five years, and they've increased the prescribed-burning schedule at about the same time.

As its name implies, Tide Swamp is in a coastal salt marsh area, but there are some uplands on the WMA.

"We have some longleaf pines, some sand pines and a lot of hardwoods," Williams said. "About a third of the area is salt marsh and the rest is uplands."