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FAQ, I am Looking for a Deer Haven, Which Property Should I Choose?

By
Real Estate Agent with Woodland Management Service / Woodland Real Estate, KW Diversified #1 in Forest Land Mgmt

FAQ, I am Looking for a Deer Haven, Which Property Should I Choose?

Deer like most wildlife species spend most of their time in what we call Edge areas.

These Edge areas are basically the place where the Three Essentials of all Wildlife Habitat exist, Food, Water, and Cover.

If you understand these essentials and how they apply to Whitetail Deer, and have them on your land then the deer will stay here.

whitetail deer

 

Water

In this part of the country, water is seldom a problem with plentiful wetlands, ponds, streams, lakes and puddles just about everywhere.

In the event that you do not have any water nearby, it won’t take much for us to create a pond for you.

Food

This is an important consideration to understand and understand well, and consider that deer have certain foods that they can eat during the summer and others that they can eat in the winter.

If their populations get too high, it is easy for them to deplete these foods and spend the winter starving.

During the summer months they do well with forbes and grasses along with lots of agricultural crops.

During the winter, their diet changes and grasses are no longer going to keep them going; this is the time when they start out with acorns and other nuts along with twigs and buds.

whitetail deerIn the Northern counties the snow and lack of oak trees means that their diet is especially dependent on young growth (they love clearcuts).

Often times we will find deer starving if there numbers exhaust the supply of these young twigs and mercy drops of hay will not help as their digestive enzymes cannot properly digest this in the winter.

 

Cover

Cover serves two purposes, both as a place to hide and as a place of protection from the elements.

During the summer, fawn predation is a big problem so good dense hardwoods are great places to stash the fawns while mom goes off to eat.

And during the winter thermal cover, such as a Pine, Spruce or Hemlock forest are welcome sites for deer as these places will generally be at least 10 degrees warmer and the wind-chill is cut down here too.

 

The Edge Combo with a twist.whitetail deer

Now that we have lightly covered the big three, let’s talk about a few highly desired combos.

During the winter, travel is difficult and uses up many calories so deer would prefer to have a nice aspen clearcut right next to a dense conifer stand.  Of course this is not always possible, but the closer we can get to this the better.

During the summer, we can create openings and plant all kinds of goodies for them to munch on or we can buy a forested parcel right next to a farmer who is already growing tasty treats.

The key is to have the cover as close to the food as possible.

On twist to understand is that deer may be able to jump over and under fences, brush, down trees and things like this, but they really do not want to.forest trail

So to maximize this habitat we not only need to make sure we are covering all of their needs, but we need to have good travel lanes or trails going between Food, Water and Cover, and if you do your trails right, they can also be a great place to plant additional food (we generally plant our trails down with clover).

If you would like any help in finding the perfect wildlife haven or in creating one, give me a call, I can help.

 

 

 Woodland Managment Service Wildlife Plan Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (13)

Robert Fowler - 55CommunityGuide.com
President of Retirement Media Inc. - Braselton, GA
55+, Active Adult and Retirement Communities

Bob if you are looking for a deer haven, just come to my subdivision in the suburbs of Atlanta. They are all over the place, unfortunately many times in the road which does not have a happy ending.  It's good to see someone covering their needs so they don't need to go to unhealthy (for them) environments.

Nov 13, 2013 12:15 AM
Debb Janes
Nature As Neighbors - Camas, WA
Put My Love of Nature At Work for You

Bob, you are giving us some great information here. I like your explanation of habitat that attracts Bambi and his family. We are lucky to have them in our neighborhood - although, they can be pesky for gardeners. :)

Nov 13, 2013 12:19 AM
Dick Greenberg
New Paradigm Partners LLC - Fort Collins, CO
Northern Colorado Residential Real Estate

Hi Bob - Thanks for a very informative post. Interesting to think about how those basics work for our mule deer population in a foothills/plains scenario with little agriculture.

Nov 13, 2013 12:45 AM
William Feela
WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN
Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

Bob, I could not have said it better myself.  I was explaining this to a client who wanted to start hunting and had no idea of where or how to start.

Nov 13, 2013 07:52 AM
Nick T Pappas
Assoc. Broker ABR, CRS, SFR, e-Pro, @Homes Realty Group, Broker/Providence Property Mgmnt, LLC Huntsville AL - Huntsville, AL
Madison & Huntsville Alabama Real Estate Resource

Bob, very good post especially for your area.  This is something I'm guessing many never consider.

Nov 13, 2013 08:04 AM
Tom Arstingstall, General Contractor, Dry Rot, Water Damage Sacramento, El Dorado County - (916) 765-5366
Dry Rot and Water Damage www.tromlerconstruction.com Mobile - 916-765-5366 - Placerville, CA
General Contractor, Dry Rot and Water Damage

Wow, that is a lot of information to consider when looking for a deer haven Bob. You are just the man to help!

Nov 13, 2013 09:36 AM
Lisa Friedman
Great American Dream Realty - Essex, VT
35 Years of Real Estate Experience!

Bob, I LOVE all of your photos! I would love to own a property that deer (and bear) can roam on :)

Nov 13, 2013 11:28 AM
Debbie Laity
Cedaredge Land Company - Cedaredge, CO
Your Real Estate Resource for Delta County, CO

The deer gather at my place every night...I think they are having a poker party. We have water and some cover. One mother has a fawn here every year.

Nov 13, 2013 11:39 AM
Lisa Friedman
Great American Dream Realty - Essex, VT
35 Years of Real Estate Experience!

Okay, that settles it - I'm moving in with Debbie!   

Nov 13, 2013 11:52 AM
Joe Petrowsky
Mortgage Consultant, Right Trac Financial Group, Inc. NMLS # 2709 - Manchester, CT
Your Mortgage Consultant for Life

Great job sharing the photos with all of us and giving all of us a good education deer life in your area.

Nov 13, 2013 06:25 PM
Gayle Rich-Boxman Fishhawk Lake Real Estate
John L Scott Market Center - Birkenfeld, OR
"Your Local Expert!" 503-739-3843

Bob, first of all THANK YOU for talking about how to keep deer healthy and safe and thriving, as opposed to hunting them. I have many loggers in this part of the country and they are all about killing these beauties, along with elk. I can't abide by this...I love them all. They are around our neighborhood all of the time at Fishhawk Lake. They are truly one of the sweetest, most beautiful creatures I've had the pleasure of viewing and "shooting", but only with a camera.

Nov 14, 2013 01:08 AM
Debbie Reynolds, C21 Platinum Properties
Platinum Properties- (931)771-9070 - Clarksville, TN
The Dedicated Clarksville TN Realtor-(931)320-6730

You know the animals so well therefore can set the stage well. How often so you get asked to do this type of service? I can say that you have many talents, Bob.

Nov 14, 2013 10:32 PM
The Woodland Team of Texas
The Woodland Companies - Austin, TX
Land Specialists

Hi Bob, I am enjoying going through some of your early blog posts and reposts and getting ready to start doing some posts myself soon.

Aug 11, 2019 02:22 PM