Herd size optimization for herd improvement must be balanced with available habitat and can be judged by the condition of the deer (and adjusted likewise up or down). Parcel size is not as important to successful herd management as the availability of food and cover as it relates to giving the herd no reason to leave the parcel. Your belief that "nature knows best" is ideology, not science. Nature can be very cruel and knows nothing - it just is. The luxury of the "nature know best" religion is possible as a direct result of man being able to alter "what nature wants". Otherwise folks would be too busy trying to survive to ponder such things.
