Thanks! How high up do you put the chicken wire, and how do you secure it to the ground? Do you put it around the spruces/pines too?

For rubbing, I have had luck with heavy duty aluminum foil wrapped around the trunk, I don't know if it's the noise or what, but deer seem to avoid it. I have also used foam pipe insulation on smaller trees.

For browsing, the only thing that works for me is round cages made from welded wire fencing.

A metal t-post next to the tree will keep them from rubbing in my neck of the woods. They don't like banging there antlers on the metal. It takes quite a bit more effort to stop them from browsing.

chicken wire

John, exactly what species do you intend to work with? I've planted right around 10,000 seedlings on land that i own in the "near north" of Wisconsin. We've planted white pine, red pine, Norway spruce, hybrid larch, and a smattering of "cedar"-actually transplanted from our woods-white spruce, paper birch, bigtooth aspen, and more. One of our "techniques" to get a good rate of survival is to plant lots of trees! We don't fence or protect anything and this place is crawling with deer. So far, it's working.

We started planting trees on that land in 2008. These little sticks-smaller than a pencil-are in many cases twenty and twenty five feet tall now. Species matters. Later, after this area has been "reclaimed" for tree growth, there will be opportunities to add in some additional species, some hardwoods here and there,, but really, it has worked better than expected. I've even had an adjacent farm field sprayed with glyphosate-sloppily-such that it drifted across my land and affected some of our young stock. So many challenges, many mini-disasters, but in the end, we're going to have a whole bunch of trees growing there.

I have leftover chicken-wire bundles used previously on small trees that I simply lay completely around trees I want protected from deer. They don't like stepping on the wires.....

Thanks all! wiconsitom, I wanted to plant several different types which are mostly native to central Iowa. Around the perimeter, I wanted cottonless cottonwoods, sycamores, maples, quaking aspen, tulip poplar, willows near the small frog pond, and Norway spruce. I like the Norway spruce since the deer don't seem to bother it too much and they grow fairly quickly. In the interior of the property, I'd like to plant maples, dawn redwoods, and firs/evergreens.

I love Canaan Fir and white birch, but I had been afraid of the deer damage. I talked to the Iowa DNR and they said the exact same thing as you: Plant tons of trees without protection to re-establish a forest. Are you saying that the deer tend to leave native species alone when they're planted in great quantities? Also, where did you purchase or obtain such a large number of trees, and did you just plant them as 1-2 foot bare-root stock? Did you have to dig a large hole for each one? How did you handle irrigation? I'd like to get them growing as fast as possible, but I know forests weren't created overnight. :)

I need to be brief but I want to help you; We started out by purchasing plug stock from itascagreenhouse.com. That vendor was (and probably still is) the only source for the hybrid larch-Larix marschlinsii-that i dearly wanted for this project. Oh wait, I forgot one year prior where we purchased Norway spruce, a few ponderosa pines for fun, and a smattering of other things. But anyway, we dicked around with small quantities-250 seedlings, that sort of thing-then went big and rented the tree planter from the county and ordered 6000 seedlings. That was three years ago and now, the planting is mostly done. We will always be doing something there but the bulk of it is done. We have woods there two and the planting area and the existing woods will blend together.

I also purchased seedlings from our own state DNR, from the Michigan DNR (our land is near the border) and other sources. There are numerous sources for seedlings.

Since so many of your initial species are hardwoods, yes, deer will be a problem. Interestingly, on our land, white cedar (Thuja ocidentalis) is a major species and the deer don't touch it. This flies in the face of everything we know about deer and that species. I can drive less than a mile away from our land and see the usual browse line on all the cedar in this cedar-rich region. So something weird about that but in a good way.

Initially, I would actually dig a hole and spread the roots out, the whole bit. That was only at the very beginning. When we went with that 6000, the machine did the digging. It's just like a cabbage planter-you just sit on the thing and kind of fling the seedling out so that the roots spread out and then the machine grabs it and plants i t. You'd get it if you ever saw it in action.

Deer won't touch your Norway spruce. In some ways, foresters I've know speak of "capturing" the site for forest. In other words, when we plant all these seedlings, this is really just the opening act. In time, other species will work their way in and the whole stand will diversify. I'd work with the easiest stuff first-the conifers. Then, once your land is starting to take shape, try to plant "pods" of these other items, protecting them with nothing more than a polygon of t-posts strung with orange baler twine at about 1-foot intervals. That way, your stand will appear more natural-trees often occur in groves-and each pod can be protected by one of these inexpensive enclosures.

We've done just this with some large plantings of tamarack (not a big item for deer usually) and white cedar ( a deer's version of chocolate ice cream) around some of our stormwater management practices in this city. It's worked out pretty well. One issue we did have this year was rabbits. These enclosures do nothing to stop bunnies and we seem to be in the midst of a rabbit population explosion. so some trees got messed up by bunnies, but for deer, this simple system actually is working.

Thanks a ton! I appreciate your insight.

Good luck! There are few things a person can do in life-in my opinion-that are more gratifying than starting a forest! It's just so much fun watching the trees grow. And while I must have heard right around 100 times, the old adage about how "I'll never live to see a tree grow" kind of thing.....we know this is nonsense. Trees grow rapidly. You can't end up 60 or 100 feet tall by dithering. These organisms grow!

A friend of mine hammers two ~5.5' pieces of aluminum conduit rod or whatever he has on hand (rebar/metal stakes/anything metal) on opposing sides of his trees. It'll never stop rabbits but it stops deer really well. The stakes stand 3-4' tall on each side. You can put a tag on one of them for labeling purposes if you wish...

He's been doing this all his life so it must work. His name is Guy Sternberg. He's an author/lecturer/researcher & a collector of woody-plants.

Here's a photo I cropped where you can see newer plantings at his arboretum:

Dax

I was thinking too that instead of willow you may consider Missourri State Nursery's Hickory Mix, along with Persimmons & oaks: Overcup (lyrata), Swamp Chestnut (michauxii) & Swamp White (bicolor.) You might want to add Pawpaw's too to your plantings.

Ordering begins Oct. 1st online. MDC Tree Orders Online

I love their plants. I've been buying for three-years. Cheap shipping out of state, too.

I'd recommend Serbian spruces in addition to Norway spruces. You cannot go wrong with Serbian spruce. And Canaan is an excellent choice. On my six-acres I grow a lot of Canaan fir and a lot of Serbian spruce. I'm south of Davenport, IA. about 40 miles, close to the Mississippi. I have the same growing conditions as you, but I'm 1/2 a zone warmer is all. You really should check out all that Missouri's state nursery has to offer.

For conifers, check into Flickinger's Nursery and Needlefast Evergreens... but before you order check out Treehaven Evergreen Nursery. Give old Don a call. See what he can offer you. He'll do bundles of 25's or 30's I don't remember which. All my seedlings on my land I bought from Don.

Dax