Neil Soderstrom - Deer-Resistant Landscaping: Proven Advice and Strategies for Outwitting Deer and 20 Other Pesky Mammals

BY NEIL SODERSTROM

Photos by author, except where noted

For my wife, Hannclore, and our son, Nikolai

............................................................... x

PART 1: OUTWITTING DEER

PART 2: OUTWITTING OTHER MAMMALS

Chapter 4: ................................... 70

Chapter 8: ............................................... 104

Chapter 11: ..................................... 121

Chapter 12: ...................... 124

Chapter 15: ........................................... 164

Chapter 201

PART 3: DEER-RESISTANT PLANTS

......................................................................................... 335

After moving into our present New York farmhouse in 1988, Hannelore and I broke ground for a 20 x 200-foot garden plot. There we planted vegetables, herbs, and berries that flourished in the rich sandy loam, further enriched by goat manure we bartered for. Plants in the first two years suffered virtually no insect damage and no damage from deer or other mammals, even though the garden had no fence.

In the spring of our third year, Hannelore offered garden samples to the chef at our regionally famous Drover's Inn. The chef liked those samples and brought the inn owner to inspect the garden. Both enthusiastically invited Hannelore to begin weekly deliveries.

However, before departing, the inn's owner inquired, "Don't you have deer trouble?"

"Not yet."

"You will!"

Indeed, we were naive to the potential for damage by deer and other mammals. Luckily for us, the previous owners had planted mainly deer-resistant ornamentals near the house.

Actually, our first problems began when raccoons destroyed our corn patch the night before our planned harvest. The following spring, four woodchucks caused havoc before being dealt with. That summer, voles wiped out our potato crop. Even though deer had discovered our daylilies near the house and our yew bushes along the foundation, they hadn't yet learned to recognize our vegetables as food.

As challenging as deer alone can be, other mammals sometimes cause greater combined landscape damage, including lawn damage. Other mammals undermine house foundations and chew electrical wires that can cause house fires and disable vehicles. Many mammals, including deer, have injured and killed pets and people. Some rodents have caused catastrophic flooding. And virtually all mammals can spread serious diseases and parasites. Yet, despite such problems, most of these mammals play vital roles in nature.

This book concentrates initially on deer and then devotes chapters to more than 20 other mammals. In each chapter, I introduce problems that each mammal causes, relative to each mammal's role in its ecosystem. Next follow factors that will help you identify culprits based on damage, tracks, and other signs. As important, you'll learn each mammal's year-round behaviors, which can help you decide on seasonally adjusted options for exclusion, eviction, frightening, and either live trapping or lethal measures. I discourage use of poisons because they are inhumane, besides being dangerous for kids, pets, and the environment.

Besides deer, the list of problem mammals includes armadillos, black bears, beavers, chipmunks, collared peccaries (javelinas), hares as well as rabbits, marmots, mice, moles, muskrats, pocket gophers, opossums, porcupines, rats, and skunks, as well as tree squirrels and ground squirrels--in all, representing hundreds of species that are often unique to tiny regions.

My research included consultations with experts continentwide. In order to understand problems that western mammals cause, I traveled there for firsthand observation and interviews. In that process, I found many of my original perspectives changing. Rather than routinely fencing out (or going so far as to kill) pesky mammals, I realized that we need to try to live in greater harmony with wildlife (outside the home, that is).

Deer overpopulation and the resulting overbrowsing of understory plants can destroy native ecosystems, as well as gardens. In response, people at one end of the philosophical spectrum argue for increased hunting harvests. In contrast, animal rightists insist that we "let nature take its course." But to let nature take its course, as it did before the Pilgrims landed, we'd need to stock dwindling wild lands with wolves and cougars, a prospect that gives most people pause.

Ironically, even the fences we erect to exclude deer can increase our problems with other mammals, such as moles, voles, mice, rats, gophers, and rabbits. That's because tall mesh deer fencing can also exclude foxes, coyotes, skunks, owls, and hawks that help keep pest populations in check.

What plants don't deer eat? The answer isn't simple because plant species change in their appeal to deer throughout the year, largely due to their changing chemical and physical defenses. Research

on deer-resistant plants is in early stages, in part inspired by pioneering studies on grazing habits of livestock by Utah State's Frederick Provenza. Fred found that young ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and goats learn from Mom what's good to eat and when, or else pay "post-ingestive consequences" that can be temporary, though instructive, or fatal. Continuing research into the foraging behaviors of ruminants, like cattle and deer, will teach us much. On the other hand, when too many deer populate a small area, they try to subsist on whatever plants are available, even if those plants would otherwise rank low on their preference list.

Important to note, many so-called deer-resistant plants are also invasive aliens that can undermine native ecosystems. Invasives that are deer resistant crowd out native plants on which entire ecosystems depend. For example, they do this by denying palatable food to butterfly-producing caterpillars on which nesting birds depend to feed their young.

To put it mildly, the solutions to deer problems and problems with most other mammals can be complex. In solving one problem, we often create others for ourselves and surrounding ecosystems.