Mother Nature's Grip

As I sit at my keyboard writing this, the only sound I hear is the northwest wind driving yet another cold front down from Canada.  It makes me wonder if winter will ever end.  In my daily routine, I try to deter deer from feeding on the shrubs and plants of my customers, the same customers I promised would not lose more than 10% of their total plantings. (I have to say that I’ve done a pretty good job so far!) 

       Traveling around Metro West, I see quite a few deer during the course of my busy day. The deer at this time of year are feeling much like us: waiting for spring to come.  Many of the does are pregnant, and the yearlings (those deer less than a year old) are fighting desperately for food. The ‘deer yards’ I’ve seen this winter have been unusually large, to say the least.  A ‘deer yard’ is a place where significant numbers of deer gather.  Typically, this area is one that provides soft-wood cover/shelter from the wind and heavy snow.  Once the snow leaves us, the deer will spread out and return to their core areas.  The does will find birthing areas and get ready to have their young in May or June.  Meanwhile, the bucks will spend a lazy summer feeding and growing their antlers.

       But for now, it’s survival of the fittest, and the deer are turning to food they would not normally eat.  To add to their plight, this food does not provide them with the nutrition they so badly need; instead, it only serves to fill their bellies, and nothing more. Pine trees, holly bushes, and rhododendrons do not contain the nutritional value that a typical winter meal of acorns and grasses would.  This dire situation will take its toll on the deer, resulting in deaths due to starvation, and a lower birth weight in the fawns come spring.

       Many people I talk to have a love/hate relationship with the deer; they like to see them, and even feel sorry for them. But at the same time, they don’t like what they can do to their landscape. Deer starvation is a normal occurrence, part of Mother Nature’s plan, and it must happen in order to insure that only the strong survive. But feeding the deer is not a good thing to do. In the end, it won’t save them, it will only hurt the overall group because the strong will eat and the young will starve.

       I hope we all have a safe rest of the winter. And the next time you see a deer, stop and think about what it must do to survive a long and difficult winter like this one.