Deer damage

I went on a nice hike yesterday. We went through an experimental tree farm, I think some kind of poplar. My friend has been watching the deer damage for several years since they were started as what he describes as an 18" stick in the ground. The damage is mainly on the plants on the edge of the field- he thinks the deer feel safer and can hide in the nearby brush in an instant. They do not go into the open and higher center much, the trees are growing ok there. Mostly they browse on the saplings, causing shrubby regrowth from the base, and suckering. It is hard to see how this could be useful to a farmer (or us homeowners). Some of the ones that get a bit taller are targeted for deer rubbing.

These photos show (sorry only had iphone, it is had to do closeups)
#1 plant victim of deer rubbing
#2 plant in center of big field growing nicely
#3,#4,#5 browsed plants trying to regrow

Sadly, I'm all too familiar with deer damage.
Our deer problem has escalated over past decade to the point that
it's a rarity for a small tree planted in my yard to survive to adulthood.
I use a variety of protective devices, but rarely are the deer deterred.
Certainly can become discouraging.

What about barrier planting of thorned varieties. Has that been tried? Would that work? I was thinking of Maclura pomifera (Osage Orange) and Poncirus trifoliata (Hardy Orange).

How about starting a "Free-range venison" business?

For a Free-range Venison business, you'll first have to come up with a great meat tenderizer.

It would be interesting to know what the tree farm's experiment is; perhaps it's to see what type of products best deter deer. I know that tree farms have experimented with the systemic deer repellent tablets that I have used with shrubs.

This discussion inspired me to walk to the woods to see how my tree and shrub seedlings are holding up against the deer, which had started eating them in the spring. My temporary solution was to hammer stakes in the ground and wrap bird netting around them, and so far it's worked. If I leave the stakes there, I'm going to spray paint them brown to make them less noticeable.

If the young trees are debarked it may not be deer ,most likely porcupine.

I've seen porcupine damage in the Oregon mountains, but it was a ring closer to the ground. They also ate the plywood holding up solar panels on the lookout I was visiting. They made a great racket all night long, chewing away.
However, deer are definitely the culprit where I live. They rub their antlers on the trunks of young trees, completely shredding the bark for a 2 to 3 foot spread. I've lost fir trees, a cedar tree, a sequoia, and a Nyssa sinensis this way. The latter sprouted branches from the base, making a sort of shrub, and I'm trying to decide if I should just take it out, or if it could be a decent plant in this alternative formation. If it just looks like a stunted, messed up tree, this might not be so good.

This message was edited Jan 3, 2014 7:15 PM

Has anyone tried Tubex tubes? http://www.tubexusa.com/forestry-products-tree-shelters.html.
They are used to protect tree seedlings planted in a park near me. I wouldn't recommend them for tiny saplings that are shorter than the tube height, because I saw first-hand how they stunted their growth and resulted in weak trunks. They are very durable: I found one tree that had grown to the same diameter as the tube.

I haven't seen trees near me damaged by deer, but if they start going after my young trees, I think I'll spray paint some of these tubes brown and put them around the trunks until they get bigger. I've read that deer prefer 2" - 3" caliper trunks; does this seem to be true?

Muddy- Those poplars were much smaller than 2' trunks, both the ones that were eaten and the rubbed ones. The Tubex tubes look interesting, especially the biodegradable ones.
cat-My friend walks there daily and had seen the deer eating and rubbing the trees, so I think it was deer.
mhf-good luck with your Nyssa-but maybe you are right and a coppiced shrub might be just what you really wanted!

I looked into a variety of tree guards to protect against deer rubbing.
I went with this one: http://www.amleo.com/product.aspx?p=VP-BG
I should have a million pictures of them, since I have tried to protect nearly every tree in my yard with them, but when taking pictures, I always carefully try to avoid having the tree guards in the view. Here's the only picture I could find at the moment. This is early spring, so the guards show up most obviously, since trees aren't leafed out yet. There are 2 saplings with tree protectors on the right side of the photo. There's nothing subtle about them, but they are heavy-duty and protect against deer rubbing better than anything else I've tried. But you need to secure them with multiple cable ties, otherwise the deer can still rip them off.
The 2nd pic shows typical deer rubbing injury. They prefer trunk diameters of 1-3 inches. Damage is from ~1-4ft off the ground, I'd guess. And I swear, they prefer the trees I value the most! They never bother the zillions of redbud/hackberry/elm seedlings... My Degroot Spire thuja's all have bald patches in that area from the deer (3rd pic).

Bucks big and small...they're gonna scrape! At my place you can't grow white pine...

They are also adept at picking fruit, even up high.

Wow, great shots. That last one was pretty hilarious.
In spring clean up, in addition to picking up the sticks,
I have to pick up all the discarded antlers!

I didn't think deer could balance so well on its hind legs!

I really feel for you all. I know I shouldn't tempt fate by saying this, but I haven't noticed such terrible damage even in the woods, and I've never seen antlers. I think one of the reasons is that bucks have to cross a lot of very busy roads in order to find their own territory and does, and they end up "rubbing" their antlers against the front end of cars and the pavement. We see a lot more does than bucks, although obviously there are some bucks around or else we wouldn't have a steadily growing deer population!

This message was edited Jan 4, 2014 5:37 PM

I found better pictures of the trunk protectors in action.
They work pretty well, but as the 2nd and 3rd pic show, not foolproof.
You can see these are just stumps left of Japanese maples,
with the trunk protectors laying on the ground.
I learned the hard way that you have to use multiple cable ties to keep them in position,
otherwise the deer rubbing just breaks the cable ties.
The final picture shows previously heavily damaged trunks with the lone healthy trunk covered with a trunk protector (edited to note this one is a star magnolia, not a JM).
I lost these Japanese maples this past November.
Fall is deer rubbing season around here.

This message was edited Jan 4, 2014 12:34 PM

I read that bucks also attack trees; I think it has something to do with establishing territory. Maybe they're reacting to the scent of another buck on the tree.