Deer versus Chestnut

[Chris Gagen]

Hi all, looking to coppice about 3 acres of chestnut soonish, and looking at options for aftercare, my question is:

 

is there a more cost effective way to protect newly coppiced chestnut stools from deer and rabbits than the obvious deer fencing...?

 

thoughts please people:001_smile:

[slack ma girdle]

Dead hedging with the brash. A few years ago i cut acre coups in a woodland. All the brash was woven into a dead hedge around the edge. the final hedge was about 7' high, with the top layers left unfinnish hanging out into the wood to make the hedge look bigger than it actually was. The hedge last about 4 years, by then the regrowth was above brousing height.

[Paul Smith]

Lay the brash over the stools, this will give them some protection and allow the coppice to get above deer height dependent what species are present.

[Rob Stringer]

Not that i've found, tenax type temporary deer fencing does the job very well, you can re-use it 2-3 times and you'll have plenty of chestnut posts to support it. Laying brash over stools,dead-hedging etc. is a waste of time in my opinion and very ineffective.

[Pat Ferrett]

I read a post on here a while back, a chap cut the stands heigher than normal to prevent browsing by deer and called it Copparding ! A new one on me

[Paul Smith]

Alternately I could come and do a deer impact assessment and manage the deer for you:biggrin: this will help greatly with your problem.

[Martyn Amos]

I read a post on here a while back, a chap cut the stands heigher than normal to prevent browsing by deer and called it Copparding ! A new one on me

 

think he was pulling your leg jam!:lol:

[Nic Johnson Contracting]

how about this

 

Grazers - effective solution to rabbit damage & crop damage by grazing rabbits, deer, pigeons, geese

 

ive not used it but surely they wouldn't be able to sell it if it didn't work and no one would repeat buy it

[treedave]

I've opted for the plastic re-useable mesh in the past and had a couple of years use out of each section. Downside - if you leave it in place too long (>2 yrs) is that the bramble / honeysuckle etc love to grow up it.

 

The link below shows it used with rabbit netting (they can be a prob making own holes etc), depends on your area. Also, better for smaller deer, Fallow / Red seem to make short work of it sometimes.

 

If you leave the right trees standing (or as 6 footers) then don't even need posts.

 

100 MTRS x 1.8 MTRS JUMBO PLASTIC DEER FENCING NETTING on eBay (end time 04-Feb-11 07:23:09 GMT)

 

NB no endorsement of any seller intended or implied

 

Brash piles - not that effective against deer (unless massive and time consuming), and rabbits just hide in them.

[dave fox]

get people to walk there dogs in there. there is a chemical you can get that deer and rabbits dont like that you lay down , but not pheaseable for 3 acres, keep all the warrens close to under control try and encourage stoats weasils into the area , get someone in to controll the deer perhaps