Deer Damage

[matelot]

Good answer! I will reiterate, deer have to be very hungry to eat bark! There is so much food around this time of year!

 

Fallow have been known to play with tree guards. What does the damage look like and what height? Please put a picture up.

 

I thought deer liked to nibble bark out of boredom and to wear down their teeth?

[Lubbo]

east Anglia

[drinksloe]

I've heard of red and sika nibbling bits of bark but often on mature trees when nothing else left to eat further north but even that is relatively rare, would rather hammer the fresh buds/leaders, but never roe or fallow. Doesn't mean they don't but i've certainly never heard of it

 

Fallow are generally quite good with trees as a grazer, roe can be bad as a browser but generally more for nipping lead buds than eating bark.

 

Are u sure not 2/3 different animals causing damage? Possibly roe doing the branches/buds and being seen so gettin blame while hare/rabbits/sheep even horses or voles eating the bark?

All will actively choose to eat bark whereas deer normally don't.

Looking closely at way bark nibbled or ripped and hieght should give u an idea of wot culprit actually is.

 

Esp in E anglia i'd imagine even in middle of winter will be far tastier foods about than tree bark

 

If u already have an active deer policy dependin wot it is and if it is definately deer damage u possibly need to look at it again, either need to shoot more or try a sort of 'stand buck' policy leaving the biggest to scare of the rest.

But u will always get some damage no matter how good ur management is more about keeping the % down so crop still vaible in 30-40 yrs. So really depends how much damage ur whole wood is sustaining.

Often the shoot them all is not really the best policy althou very widely used now with commercial forestry ground

[Ruskins Trees]

Met a forester in East Anglia who instead of protecting new trees he just gave the deer something else they preferred to eat, by planting other stuff, to stop them eating bark. We looked at hundreds of trees, none had bark damage.

[drinksloe]

Ronnie rose snr was 1 of the first forresters to do that back in 70's and designed eskdalemuir forest with deer/deer control in mind, leaving big glades in areas where the deer want to be or where best food is for them so makes it a lot easier to manage them. Really when forests planting starting being designed as it is now, less straight edges and more hardwoods etc

At that time most forests just tried to plant as many trees as possible into the acreage they had

 

Wot trees were they planting Ruskin?

 

Often willow is a favourite for planting to encourage them to fray it, but u can also buy various deer lawn mixes so u can plant an area with appetising grasses for the deer ideally somewhere u can shoot safely and get carcass out easliy

[Paul Smith]

Is the damage from fraying or eating? Are there teeth marks on the tree? Deer have no top incisors so rip when they bite. Are there any buds/tips left on the floor?

 

No matter what you do you can not protect trees 24 hours a day. You can shoot deer 1hour before and 1hour after sunrise and sunset but if under pressure the deer will just come to feed under the cover of night!

 

Fencing is the only guaranteed method and is only as good as the fence.

 

Getting a night license is not going to happen unless your in Scotland!

 

Shoot hard and plant sacrificial stock. Remember control the females to control the population!

[Ruskins Trees]

The trees were a mix of Pines, Oaks, Birch..., all planted in blocks with open spaces in between. They were planted not for timber but as a interesting landscape design over a couple of hundred acres.