Deer and Fences in No. California

Some small apology is in order to the list, as my contribution has been rather sporadic, and to those recipients not on the list; but I do think my little rant is worth the minute or so it would take to read it. Karl.

Tim wrote:
> As a New Zealander I must say I am very puzzled about the number of 
> Californian Medit members who have deer problems. Those New
> Zealanders who 
> live in rural areas (like us) would all have sheep or cow or deer 
> or goat 
> problems if they did not build fences of some sort around their
> gardens. 
> Why don't Californians build deer proof fences? ...

An adult Mule Deer can apparently clear a 7' (~2.2m) fence
on level ground with little difficulty. More plentiful,
smaller ones routinely jump in and out of the 6' chain-link
fence around the back of our property, even though going
out involves an additional 1 1/2' jump due to the steep
grade. 3 meter fences are prohibitively expensive and
probably require some sort of city planning variance in
my location just inside the San Jose city limits.

The most annoying deer damage, though, has been to the
front yard, around which we have no fence; the deer are
quite fearless and evening after evening gather at the
opening of our cul-de-sac, apparently confering as to whose
landscaping to plunder that night.

They even come onto our front porch and eat particularly
delectable plants, such as stocks, whilst the plants are
still in pots and trays just outside our front door.
This has been the worst year of the four we've lived here.

I've found that they love Apple, Olive, Abutilon, Psidium cattaliana (sp.?), Lagunaria patersonii, and Crocus sativa. They're pretty fond of black-stemmed Pittosporum. They've done somewhat of a useful service trimming the thicket of Raphiolepis the previous owner mistook for a foundation hedge. If only the buggers would develop a taste for Bougainvillea...

They completely avoid Umbellularia californica, even seedlings.
They've mostly avoided (toxic!) Aesculus californica, though it
seems they topped off one of my 1-year old plants. They also
avoid Rhubarb, Asparagus, Avocado, Citrus, Psidium guajava,
Sanseviera, Baccharis, and Banksia (integrifolia?).

Of course they avoid Eucalyptus, Nerium, Taxus, Juniperus,
Cryptomeria, Pinus, Sequoaidendron, and Abies. Euphobia lathyrus
works as well above ground as below and I now protect all my Crocus sativus with little hedges the stuff - if only it were perenniel!
I'm not about to experiment with the Callitris and Chrysolepis i've grown from seed - they will go out in chicken wire cages!

I suspect the real culprits in this episode aren't the deer 
but the overly plentiful Beef Farmers which occupy all the hilly land between the Santa Clara and San Joaquin valleys. They over-graze their pig-eyed pests till all that's left is 1000's of square miles of mud or dust and star-thistles (Centaurea solstitialis); driving
good old Odocoileus hemionus out of the rolling hills and into my front yard.

They've eliminated all bears and wolves and continue poisoning coyotes, thus removing, with the help of Bambi-eyed anti-hunting types, any natural limit to the population of deer, save starvation.

I didn't really appreciate the vastness of this problem until I took my sons to a so-called 'open space preserve' encompassing the highest hill in the immediate vicinity, Monument Peak, about 860 m. above sea level. I expected to see interesting native vegetation yet all I saw was a few lonely old Platanus and Umbellularia scattered in dry creek beds, cattle, mud, chewed-off fescue and STAR THISTLE - yuck. So, I suppose according to the immensely wise government planners, poorly kept beef farms are 'open space preserves' - B.S.!
k.h.



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