@MariposaMaid
"vehicles are main killers. Auto insurance rates are higher for heavy deer population areas."
That's true up here, too. However, because I live in the mountains, often with narrow roads with no guard rails, there is also the significant danger of falling off the mountain if you hit a deer or try to avoid hitting a deer. So, it's not just vehicle damage, but some people actually die or have life changing injuries. Most of us who live here all of the time, know better than to try to avoid a deer and just hit it. It's generally the tourist trying to avoid deer that fall off of the mountain.
"Wonder whether deer can be taught to eat the great number of 'invasives' that fill our woodlands around here, displacing native plant ecology? Goats eat ivy, couldn't deer?"
Town deer do eat ivy. The ivy hiding my propane tank looks like it has had a military hair cut. She ate every leaf off of the vinca out in front. Deer hate vinca. All of my deer resistant plants out front have been eaten to the crown except for my lamb's ear and santolinas.
We do use goats to clear creeks and streams of invasive blackberry bushes. But there is no rent-a-goat program because of the cougars.
Their mamas did teach the town deer to eat plants that regular deer would avoid.
Cat ... the doe cleaned out my Creeping Charlie, too.
greenthumb99 ..."greenthumb99" using minty plants in the landscape does work for regular deer.
treehugger .... I did try laying down wire under the maple tree. I did it both laying the wire flat and in rolls. I ended up putting that wire on the vinca slope, but I also caged the slope.
I think the real issue up here is that the herd is simply too large and they will eat anything, so it's kind of like nothing is safe.
When I read up on deer eating habits, I found that deer normally eat grasses and the leaves of understory plants during the milder season, but automatically change to eating twigs and small branches during the winter months after leaf fall.
To protect the small towns up here from wildfire, there has been a lot of work done outside the town perimeters removing the understory plants and thinning the trees using controlled burns. Yes, it is destroying the natural habitat for town deer, but they don't really dine in those areas ..
Here's kind of an interesting article about the impact that a controlled burn can having on a fire.
http://www.redding.com/news/lo...
