What Can I Do To Reduce Deer Impact?

Increased hunting pressure is often an option in forested settings. Many states have programs that allow landowners to cooperate with hunters to ensure that hunters understand and respect your goals as a landowner, and many have special programs in which you can enroll your land to receive additional hunting licenses or tags.

Fencing is another opportunity. If you have a portion of your forest where you are counting on the development of tree seedlings or where you have a cluster of beautiful or valuable wildflowers or shrubs, you can erect fences to protect these plants. There are at least three options for fencing material.

Regardless of the type of fencing selected, looking carefully at the forest to avoid places where your planned fence will cross any well-worn deer paths is a good idea if possible. Deer have been observed to cross fences up to 8 feet tall, and avoiding placement where a steep slope might increase the ease with which deer could cross the fence is also important.

The most expensive and most reliable option is woven wire fencing, constructed from one 8-foot or two four-foot pieces of woven wire. Pulling the fence very taught around your enclosure is very important. In most locations, it is important to ensure that the bottom of the fence is well-secured or even dug into the ground, as deer can scramble into fenced areas under woven-wire fences that are not secured at the bottom. If two rolls of 4-foot fencing are used, it is important to secure them together very frequently along the length of the fence. In forested settings, trees can frequently serve as fence posts, but you may want to substitute actual fence posts where your fence would damage a tree with high potential commercial values, where there are wide gaps between trees, or where the most logical fencepost trees seem unlikely to survive for the length of time you hope to keep the fence up. In some states, there is an established group of contract fencing companies who are familiar with the challenges of forest fencing. A sample fencing contract is included in the resources.

Another alternative is electric fence. At least 5 strands of electrified wire are usually required, and this alternative is more viable where there is a nearby power source (close to a barn, for example) or in or near an opening that could power a solar battery. There are a number of designs that are believed to increase effectiveness of electric fences, and we include some references in the resource section. Ground vegetation can cause shorts in the fencing, requiring more frequent visits to check the fence. Once deer learn that the fence is sometimes deactivated, they will continue to penetrate it. In general, electric fences are used for areas that are large enough so that penetration by a deer or two will not prevent attainment of management goals.

For very small areas that are easily visited frequently, 8-foot plastic fence may work. This might include a test patch to see if a more significant investment in fencing would be worthwhile, or to protect a small community of wildflowers. Here, too, taught installation and careful management of the interface between the forest floor and the fencing are important. The requirement for more frequent check visits is due to the increased vulnerability of this kind of fencing to wind damage.

Most types of fencing are easily penetrated by other wildlife. Bear use the tree fenceposts to climb woven wire fences, and most mammals such as raccoons and chipmunks pass easily through the mesh. Squirrels and birds can enter the enclosure from above. Electric fences may exclude bears, but most other animals can enter enclosures created by electric fencing.

All types of fencing require regular maintenance in addition to careful installation. In general, it is a good idea to check the entire perimeter of a fence at least twice monthly and after any significant weather event that may have resulted in tree or limb throw.