Below is a link that shows the natural scuccession of forests in northern WI

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/EndangeredResources/Communities.asp?mode=group&Type=Northern%20forests

Reviewing the different micro ecosystems may help one plan for the species that grow the best in their area and also provide food and cover.
The real advantage in the north with popple is its rapid growth and high seed reserves. The real advantage for deer is all the other berry and succulant plants that grow when the canopy is gone.
Where I grew up I was just south of what is called the tension zone and we had a huge diversity of plant life.
Where I live now I am further south but just north of that line. The micro eco systems are quite different
Humans can really manage natural plant communities and keep them very young and productive. The real advantage of that is one has all of the acreage in that stage and not a couple acres that are farmed so to speak.

Bryce

They can snap off easier than other trees in storms

You are going to laugh, here in Pa we have a season on Pockies. And a 6 a day limit.......jk

Here’s a couple pictures of some of the poplar taken off last week, most from logging road edges and a 40-acre clear cut. We have 320 acres and this section shown, I acquired 3 years ago, the logger said he had not seen poplar that large and nasty in over 30 years in our area, the largest log was 29” in diameter, probably one more straight-line wind storm from losing it all. Aspen/Poplar clear cuts are one more tool for deer management if incorporated correctly with other initiatives- you can see in the last photo- this is a 40-acre clear cut, sandwiched between a 29 acre food plot field and a 10 acre food plot, in the distance behind the clearcut is a 26 acre tag alder shear from February of this year, with browse plot plantings and a 33 foot wide field border edge, filled with legumes and brassicas between the alder and ag fields. You can see that most of the poplar was punky inside, the mill will take that without hesitation, they do not want hollow as shown in the one pic. We also had pockets of cherry with a few bolts but mostly smaller at the end-of-life cycle- that market price is fairly high; it will all go to smoker pellets. During the harvest the logger saw numerous shooter bucks, bedding on that edge between the alder and poplar, he could actually keep working until he got close, the last pic is taken from a gun stand and you can see we're working on a new stand on that point funnel.

Here's a link to a good article on a rumen study of deer on a seasonality basis- it highlights the preference of poplar browse in addition to other preferred browse
https://buffalo.extension.wisc.edu/files/2011/01/Foods-of-Northern-Deer.pdf

Interesting article.

I sometimes wonder what the likelihood is of feasibly being able to plant Aspen by seed