Later in the week we started locating some of the abandoned deer exclosures from a study used to examine the relationship between deer population density and vegetation growth throughout the park. The exclosures were deconstructed at the end of the study in the early 2000s, but they will soon be re-established throughout the park so that more data can be collected from the sites. The theory behind the study is that native plants have a better chance of outcompeting invasive plants in their habitat when deer are not present to over-graze the forest floor.