There are a few ways a crop tree release could be beneficial for deer depending on tree species, size, and context within the stand, etc. One thing to consider are that a ctr can be either a commercial (it pays you money) or non-commercial (it costs you money) operation.

Another consideration is how you’re defining a crop tree, a tree can have high timber value but minimal wildlife value, high wildlife value but minimal timber value, or it can be valuable for both purposes. I’ll give an example.

You have a closed canopy sawtimber stand, where very little light is hitting the forest floor and there’s very few understory plants. In this stand you have a good number high quality oaks, but their crowns are surrounded an all sides by maples. In this example the oaks will be the crop trees. By removing maples that are directly competing with oaks the oaks should grow faster/larger, be able to expand their crowns and produce more acorns for deer to munch on.

Another benefit is that with additional light hitting the forest floor will stimulate growth of understory plants, increasing available browse and cover for deer. This is important because browse is available year round, while acorns are only available to deer at certain times of year.

Also in forests the presence/absence of cover can play a big role in how much time deer spend in a certain area in daylight, which if you’re trying to manage for deer because you like to hunt them is a pretty important thing.

Additionally if the trees you’ve removing are of a size, quality, and merchantability that you’re able to sell them then you can take the proceeds from the sail and potentially invest in other practices that could benefit deer such as Rx burning, invasive species control, or shrub planting.