ALCS Installs Deer Exclosure to Protect Rare Migratory Birds
June 14, 2022
With generous cost-share funding from the US Department of Agriculture, the US Forest Service, and administered by staff from the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, ALCS hired BASH Contracting, Inc. of Clearfield, PA, to install an eight-foot-high steel wire mesh deer exclosure on over ten acres at the ALCS office site in Lycoming County, PA. The 55-acre property is a Tree Farm, and filed its first management plan with DCNR in 2002.
While the primary purpose of the project is to provide native hardwood regeneration habitat for the rare golden winged warbler and the blue winged warbler, “many ground nesting species will benefit from the fence preventing deer from browsing this site, as well, such as ruffed grouse, wild turkeys, whippoorwills, and countless migratory songbirds who need a dense, young hardwood forest to successfully nest,” says Josh First, president of ALCS.
Golden wing warblers require a specialized habitat that is becoming difficult to find, due to deer browsing native forest after the mature overstory has been removed through commercial logging or simply felling. Studies of the diminutive birds show that they require a dense understory of native hardwoods, particularly mixed oaks, as well as scattered mature hardwoods from which to sing, attract mates, and court.
“Even if the northcentral deer herd is down compared to 2002, Pennsylvania still has a lot of deer, and it doesn’t take many of them to badly impact hardwood regeneration in places where it should not otherwise be a challenge to grow the next hardwood forest,” says First.
Over twenty years of aggressive deer hunting on site has been insufficient to bring the local deer population into balance with the Tree Farm’s carrying capacity, as witnessed by a foot-high carpet of white oak seedlings that are between fifteen and twenty years old. Constant deer browsing has resulted in the oak seedlings living as stunted shrubs, rather than as the towering trees they are designed to be.
“Imagine you are a golden winged warbler, and your powerful spirit to survive and breed just flew your tiny little body all the way from Costa Rica to northcentral Pennsylvania, through terrible storms and freezing weather, endless hungry raptors, and little food, only to arrive at your destination with really no way to communicate with the opposite sex due to poor habitat conditions,” says First.
“We are among a group of private and public landowners who are trying to give these little guys a much needed opportunity, so they can continue to breed, procreate, and continue to bring both biodiversity and the cutest little golden wings on any bird you ever saw into our magical natural world,” he said.
First says that because ALCS’s mission is to use private markets to achieve public conservation benefits, placing the fence at the office made the most sense of the several properties ALCS has access to. Any golden winged warblers using the fenced area to breed and nest will be documented with state biologists. “We have really enjoyed working with the staff from the various agencies. Their hearts are fully in these conservation projects,” says First.
Using a Wood Mizer LT35 hydraulic sawmill, ALCS milled on-site all of the white oak posts used to hang the fence from native white oak trees grown and felled on the property.
“In addition to our cash contribution to the generous public funding that makes this project possible, we significantly reduced our overall cost by milling and supplying the white oak fence posts that BASH Contracting installed to hold up the steel fence,” said First.
In 2020, ALCS persuaded Pennsylvania agencies to adopt rot-resistant white oak as an alternative deer fencing post material. White oak is abundant in Pennsylvania, very strong, rot resistant, and does not require trucking long distances to reach fencing sites, unlike the western and southern conifers usually used for fence posts.
