Deer

ofearghp

Hi folks,

I have just bought about 50 acres of land of medium quality. It is close to an ancient woodland of significant size and the general plan is to establish native woodland (oak, birch, holly) on our site to act as an extension and corridor for that habitat.

We will partly apply for the NWS grant, which should cover deer fencing on about 14 acres, but there are 20 acres of existing Sitka spruce that we will thin and gradually convert, ideally with natural regeneration. The rest of the land we will attempt to have natural generation work, but will see how it works in practice.
The big issue here (and in the ancient woodland) is exploding deer numbers, which will be an issue for natural regeneration.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to tackle this problem, without breaking the bank?

Some ideas I have come across include human hair, CDs hanging from trees, radio playing talk shows. I'll try them but I'm not holding my breath.

The deer use a the bank of deep river as a corridor (I think), so what would happen if I put deer fence on this and 300m 'inland' form the river. Can they swim? Will that sort of disruption to their habiuts make a difference?

Another plan is to plant blackthorn and hawthorn scrub and to use them as a natural barrier for oaks. I have read about this in Wilding, but haven't found much else about it.

Is culling the only effective option?

Thanks!

victor8600

ofearghp wrote: »

Is culling the only effective option?

Not an option unless you kill them all. A single deer can strip a hundred saplings in one night.

You need tree guards or a 1.8m high fence all around the area you are planting. Personally, I have put two heights of sheep mesh fence all around my (small) site. The fence does not need to be cattle proof, deer won't ram it afaik, but it needs to be high and have no space to crawl under.

ofearghp

That's really interesting about the doubled sheep fence. You don't happen to have a photo by any chance? Is it under high tension? How many deer are there in the area?

victor8600

ofearghp wrote: »

That's really interesting about the doubled sheep fence. You don't happen to have a photo by any chance? Is it under high tension? How many deer are there in the area?

Photo is attached. The fence is tensed, not sure if it can be called high tension. There are thicker poles at site corners where the mesh was attached under tension. It's in Wicklow, deer is really plentiful there.

ofearghp

Thanks for the photo, I appreciate it

victor8600

ofearghp wrote: »

Thanks for the photo, I appreciate it

Best of luck! You may also read this thread https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057820221

If it's not too much trouble, you could document your own progress by taking pictures of the site now and then each year as trees grow and share it on Boards?

ofearghp

Thanks for thread, very interesting read. Especially the stuff about blackthorns.

I'm planning to do a newsletter or something about the project, but will post it up here too sure.

Boardnashea

Sounds like a great project. Best of luck with it. Where are you based?

ofearghp

Cheers, based in south Galway. I've learnt a lot reading through this forum, so I'll post up some stuff as I go here sure.