Deer Season

In honor of deer hunting season, which opened on Saturday in Minnesota, I thought I would write about our largest four-legged pest - the white-tailed deer. The deer population is exploding in Minnesota. Someone told me that there are and estimated 1.8 million deer in the state, which is one for every 3 people. This year, in some areas of the state hunters can take up to five (!) deer as long as four of them are antlerless (i.e., female).

Just 15 years ago, a scene like this would have been rare in an inner-ring suburb of Minnesota, even on a pond.

Now, we see these deer - plus about five others - on an almost daily basis. Here they are innocuously munching on buckthorn tips that are growing from the as-yet-unpulled roots of the bushes we had bulldozed out earlier this summer.

However, as pretty as they look while eating next to the pond, I have very mixed emotions about deer. I never wrote about it (I think because it pissed me off so much), but I'm pretty sure that the deer have figured out how to get past the deer fence we put up this spring. Either that or they are brazen enough to walk right next to the back door, up five wooden steps to the deck, across about 30 feet of deck situated next to several very large windows, and into the garden.

I had my suspicions about deer in the garden when the hostas started disappearing. At the time, though, I wrote it off to the rabbits branching out in new culinary directions. Then one morning as I went out for my pre-work garden walk-through, I found every last asparagus stalk eaten to about 8" off the ground. This was in August, so the fronds were about four feet tall.

I can't imagine that the rabbits could have done it: The fronds were too large, the remaining stalks were too tall, and it was all eaten in one night. The same thing happened last year, but there was incriminating evidence - hoofprints. (This one event was the impetus for putting up the deer fence this spring.) This year there were no hoofprints, so I don't have definitive proof that the deer did it.

Then, as we got closer to the end of August, I noticed that the Kentucky Blue pole beans - growing on a tepee - were starting to look sparse. There were still beans, but it seemed like there were fewer leaves. On closer inspection it looked as if the leaves were being nipped off.

There is only one creature that lives in the Twin Cities that could eat the leaves from the top of a six-foot-tall bean tepee - deer. Now, maybe the leaves were starting to fall off as the summer waned. We had a very hot, dry end to the summer, and maybe the plant was feeling the stress. However, the Purple Podded pole beans were on a trellis not four feet away and were lush and beautiful. Both the tepee and the trellis got watered at the same time, so that couldn't be the problem.

I'll never know for sure, but I'm pretty sure the deer had been in the garden again. Adding to my frustration at home, I had three incidents this summer when I almost hit a deer with my car. Each one was driving to and from work, which is only a 3.7 mile trip. Even if you're only going 35 mph, hitting a deer can cause substantial damage to a car and potential serious injury to those in the car.

Besides damaging gardens, white-tailed deer are decimating native plant populations in some parts of the state. Because there are so many deer, the native plants just don't have a chance. This year the DNR is allowing hunting in several state-designated scenic and natural areas (SNA's) thoughout the state to relieve some of the pressure. One of our neighbors, who spent years covering native woodland wildflowers with cages, finally put up a deer fence this spring. I know that when it comes time to start our own woodland restoration I'm going to have to think hard about how to protect it from deer browsing.

So you can see why I have very mixed feelings about the deer in our neighborhood. They are beautiful, and it amazes me that a creature that large can roam wild through the suburbs. But there are just too many of them. I am one of those people who believe that a deer hunt in the City is actually a good idea, as long as the meat goes to shelters and food shelves. Without natural predators - exept man and the very occasional mountain lion - and with the mild winters we've had over the past several years, the deer population continues to explode. At least on my 0.67 acres of the world, we are starting to feel besieged by Bambi.

Comments

[Ali]

I sympathize. We are lucky, there is a state owned island in the Kennebec River in our town that is an uninhabited wildlife preserve, and we often see deer on the island, and in the winter, crossing to and fro over the ice. As yet, they have stayed away from my yard, but I'm sure there will come a day....

As for your deck and the deer...a few years ago I was visiting a friend vacationing on Peaks Island just off Portland in Casco bay, Maine, and observed firsdt hand the island deer browsing from window boxes and porch planters all over the island in the middle of the day --and this was the year after they had a sharpshooter reduce the population by half!

Good Luck!!!
Ali

[Talbin]

Ali: You are lucky. We have an extremely large park system just to our west, but the deer are still a problem. One of our biggest issues is that the little neighborhood I live in - about 25 acres - is completely wooded, with fewer than one house per acre. I know where the deer sleep! I just didn't think they would be quite so brazen as to walk up steps and across a pretty large deck. I should have taken my cue from the hostas that were munched right next to the front door.

[Annie in Austin]

We moved from one Austin house to another two years ago, and so far, the deer haven't come here.

At the last house we had steps leading up to decks and yes, the deer could climb those stairs. We had to add gates to keep them from eating all the deck plants. [And then remember to shut the gates!]

The deer loved to walk up the front porch steps, stand on back legs, with front feet balanced on the porch columns, so they could reach up higher and eat everything out of the hanging baskets.

Annie

[Talbin]

Annie: You're lucky so far in Austin! I think next spring we're going to have to do what you did in your old house - construct a gate and attach the deer fence to it. I'm just not willing to give up on my veggies yet!

And as for eating your baskets - they regularly eat out of our bird feeders. Last year I watched a doe with triplets teach them how to do it. Now the bird feeder sits empty, because if I move it any higher I can't get to it, but if I fill it as-is, the deer will clean it out in one night.