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macatsuma
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 77
Location: elland, west yorkshire
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 Posted: Wed Jun 08, 05 3:56 pm Post subject: encouraging deer population |
 
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a friend of mine bought some land a couple of years ago which was part of the rich local history of stone quarrying in this area of calederdale, steeply banked sides, considerable sized "lake" in the middle of the bowl serviced by a number of run offs from the upper valley and a decent reclaimation by the flaura and fauna in the 5-10 years (?) since it was last quarried, we were up there at the weekend and it is eventually going to be indestinguishable from the local woodland unless you look closely,
which leads me to my question, we have been suffering in calderdale over the past couple of years from some pretty unpleasant poaching / "sporting" activities the ones that stick in my mind being the theft of lurchers and greyhounds from a resue in Sowerby Bridge which were used for badger baiting and the other was a group of blokes with dogs "rounding up a group of 10 - 12 deer" ( Calderdale Evening Courier 2003) the intention i would say was obvious.
We have a fairly healthy deer population in the valley (don't know about badgers)and Martin (the lad with the quarry) would like to encourage them onto his land, whilst i accept that the animals are no safer here than anywhere else in the valley it would be good to extend their stomping ground somewhat.
Will they naturally wander in or are there ways we can encourage them (we've seen no tracks, though we are none of us experts, my knowledge comes from some Clarks Adventurers when i was a kid that had the tracks on the bottom and a compass in the heel 
the local population seem to stick to a prescribed area, but are not fenced in, no road for them to cross only farm tracks
oh and treacodactyl has already suggested planting hundreds of pounds worth of saplings for them to chow down on, which we are considering  |
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex
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macatsuma
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 77
Location: elland, west yorkshire
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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macatsuma
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 77
Location: elland, west yorkshire
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 05 10:44 am Post subject: |
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| macatsuma wrote: |
good point i suppose i'm falling prey to my own "dead things with big brown eyes" argument aren't i?  |
Hell, no. Deer are GREAT! As part of an interesting and diverse woodland, they're marvellous. The problem is that if you've got a site that's no longer such a woodland, and then deer arrive, what you'll end up with is something other than the woodland you're hoping to get. They're just too damaging to regenerating trees, hence where tree planting schemes occur there's often conflict with deer. You can't explain to a deer that if he doesn't eat the trees now he'll have a better habitat later, they're far too much like us 
Ultimately, whether you want deer on the land for hunting, for interest or whatever reason, if they arrive in a mature woodland there's an advantage to that. Then, of course, you've got the whole possibility of overpopulation to look forward to, but that's another story |
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macatsuma
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 77
Location: elland, west yorkshire
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 05 11:06 am Post subject: |
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| cab wrote: |
| Ultimately, whether you want deer on the land for hunting, for interest or whatever reason, if they arrive in a mature woodland there's an advantage to that. Then, of course, you've got the whole possibility of overpopulation to look forward to, but that's another story |
We wanted to dress them up in some deer / large hoofed mammal clothing we are designing similar to that chicken suit on another thread but more formal, kind of a kevlar, lurcher proof tuxedo, and of course some evening wear for the derrettes |
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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