Gardeners don't fawn over deer
Sometimes even a doe-eyed Bambi will wear out its welcome. Deer have been banned from many gardens, orchards and woodlots because they damage or destroy so many tender shoots, fragile saplings and emerging blooms.
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"At high density, deer will eat just about anything on the landscape," said Paul Curtis, an extension wildlife specialist with Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. "Orchard and nursery industry crops are particularly susceptible. It's almost impossible to plant without some kind of deer protection."
That can range from netting and fences (the latter at least 8 feet high and electrified) to free ranging dogs, repellents and deer-resistant plants - often in combination.
The problem is huge. Deer numbers have ballooned from fewer than 500,000 nationwide in the early 1900s to a current 25 million to 30 million.
"New houses out in rural areas have become deer sanctuaries," Curtis said. "Most (subdivisions) become no-hunting zones. That makes for subsidized grazing."
Deer bring other costs, too, including automobile wrecks, Lyme disease and extensive wildflower and forest losses.
"They can really do a job on hardwood seedlings browsed during the winter months," Curtis said. "Trillium and several kinds of Lady's Slippers (orchids) are particularly sensitive to deer grazing. We have a 7-acre wildflower garden on campus and we've had to put a 10-foot-high fence around it."
Not everyone likes installing physical barriers, however.
"Part of having a garden is surely an attitude of wanting to be part of nature rather than shutting yourself off," said Ruth Clausen, author of the new "50 Beautiful D
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