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Central Iowa | In the spring of 2009 I planted a windbreak along the north side of my property consisting of 3 rows of Blackhills Spruce, White Pine and Cannan Fir. Last winter we had a lot of snow and the deer found my windbreak delicous. Most of the trees have come back from the feeding but I lost 15-20 of the 130 trees that I planted.
I am trying to figure out how to protect what I have left for this upcoming winter. My property is a runway between 2 major rivers about 1 1/2 miles apart from each other and keeping the deer away is nearly impossible. I don't live at this property otherwise I don't think they would be as bad. Somtime in the next couple of years we would like to build a house on this land but for now nobody is there in the evening when the deer come out to feed.
I don't want to install a permanant fence but would consider something temporary that can be taken down next spring. How high does a fence have to be to keep the deer out of this area? The dimensions of the windbreak are roughly 65'x450' so it's going to get costly to fence it off. I had also considered a propane cannon that shoots a loud bang every half hour but I am afraid the deer would eventually get used to it, plus I'm not sure the neighbor would appreciate it.
I've considered trying to get depredation tags from the DNR but at times I have counted over 50 deer feeding so it's going to take a lot of shooting to get rid of them all.
Let me know your thoughts/ideas. Thanks | |
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Keeping Deer Away from Wind Break
