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Coconah- Hampshire H.S.

                                                                                                                           10/23/2009

There are major conflicts between homeowners and deer that can easily be avoided with some effort and understanding.  The most important problems that exist are:  deer eating plants on  private property, fence destruction, and garden damage.  First, deer are attracted to the flowers and plants that grow on homeowners property.  However, there are many plants that deer are not attracted to.  Two deer resistant vegetations are Pawpaw and Lavender. To find  more plants that are deer resistant, visit www.deerresistantplants.com .  Another conflict between deer and homeowners is the problems they cause to the property, including:  fence destruction.  Deer attempt to jump fences and sometimes tear them up when they do.  About a week ago a deer got caught in my fence and tore it up; it also snapped its neck in the process. A solution to this problem could be invisible fence: to view go to, www.bennersgardens.com .   These fences give deer the illusion that the fence goes sky high, when it really doesn’t, so the deer do not attempt to jump it. The money to finance this project could be worth it for the homeowner, if the deer are seriously bothering their land.  This idea may sound crazy, but around a wooded area this would be great.  Next, deer get into gardens and eat plants and ruin the hard effort put into them.  The solution for this would be to place shrubs around your garden or trees around your garden.  You could also put shrubs around your property.  These shrubs and trees include the following: firs, hollies, junipers, pines, and spruces. 

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Harassed Homeowners- Petersburg H.S

                                                                                                                           10/26/2009

  The deer in Grant County are overpopulated and have caused several problems in our area.

  Something must be done to control this.  Deer are causing financial hardships and

property damage.  They eat our flowers, destroy our gardens, and cause vehicle accidents.

 The deer population has increased from about 29 deer per square mile to 36 in Grant

County.  That means deer are clearly overpopulated since experts say that populations

greater than 20 deer per square mile can cause serious problems.  (1)

Every year we spend hundreds of dollars landscaping our yards with beautiful flowers and

shrubs.  It takes us weeks of labor to cultivate our beautiful lawns, but the deer need only

a few hours to completely destroy it.  We put hard work into our gardens to cut down on

grocery bills, but we have to invest more in fencing to protect them from unwanted visitors.

  The food supply is not large enough to support the large population of deer, so they are

forced to eat our plants.

Perhaps the most serious problem associated with deer is vehicle accidents.  There are

approximately 1.5 million accidents caused by deer every year (2).  According to a study by

 State Farm Insurance in 2006, deer caused 200 human casualties and over $1.1 billion in

damage (3).  This tragic loss of life could be reduced with the reduction of the deer

population. 

Deer can cause many problems for homeowners when overpopulated.  In an effort to

reduce the large population, authorities should declare a new hunting season.  This would

allow the hunters to take care of this problem for us.  We have no problem with these

beautiful creatures, but they can become a nuisance when there are too many of them. 

Works Cited

1.          http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/hs_chat.htm

2.         http://www.car-accident-advice.com/car-accidents-due-to-        deer.html

3.         http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/suburbs/

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DEER DIARY- Kemps Landing Magnet S. 6th grade

                                                                                                                           10/30/2009

We represent homeowners.  We are trying to prevent conflicts between deer and people. We are here to give solutions for both people who do not mind deer on their land and also those who do not like deer on their land no matter what.  We also are trying to prevent problems for deer causing crashes along highly forested roads.

For those who love seeing deer on their land we have many possible solutions for you. One step you may want to consider is clearly posting no trespassing and no hunting signs around the perimeter of your land. If the hunters do not see that they are entering your land then how are they supposed to know that they are trespassing? Also if you have a garden but still want to be able to watch the deer you need to put up a fence to protect your garden. Another solution is deer repellent. All you need to do is find some of the plants that a deer would never eat in the wild such as sage, lemon balm, Russian sage, cleome, barberry, purple coneflower. You then crush those or blend with a liquid such as water with a little bit of hot sauce and put in spray bottle. This will cost you approximately $15 - $20 in expenses. You then spray over your plants and this repellent will deter any deer from eating your garden.

For those who do not want any part of deer on their land the simplest solution is a fence. They are not very expensive and they can deter most of the deer. Most of the time deer try to come onto your land is because of the deforestation that is forcing them to look for new plants. The competition that having to large of a population density and size has forced them to new places in search of food. They also may try to escape from predators in their habitat onto your land. Deer repellant is also helpful in keeping deer from your land but our home made method will not be as successful for keeping them of your land. Although a fence is our best solution for you keeping deer off your land.

The biggest problem for us homeowners however is car crashes caused by deer. Many times the trees have not been cleared far enough of the road so deer will jump out in front of cars.  Solution for this is to clear all obstructing objects 20 feet from the road. This will still allow all organisms and different species besides the deer to travel freely from different parts of the forest. This is important because the deer need to be able to access all of the parts of their ecosystem in search of their necessities. Another solution is creating fences along the side of the road so that deer cannot come onto the road. That though is not as good as our first solution because that will cause the deer to not be able to travel freely throughout the forest land. The human impact on the deer would be much greater if this solution had to be reached for crashes to not occur.

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Homely Deer- Kemps Landing Magnet S. 6th grade

                                                                                                                              11/2/2009

  Deer are great organisms, but they are affecting our community in a degenerative way

because of their population size. We as homeowners do not want them to go away

completely because we like seeing them, but the deer eat our vegetables and flowers. Also,

people have been injured by deer collisions near our houses. Other homeowners face the

same problem. We do not want to threaten the deer, but simply prevent them from

entering our habitat. It is true that the deer population has exceeded the maximum

capacity of their ecosystem, but a solution would be using fences that exclude deer,

instead of having hunters killing them.  About 100 times a day in Virginia, deer get in an

accident with a car (Kimberlin). To prevent deer from causing accidents along the road,

people can put fences along the roadways to prevent deer from running in front of cars.

People can take away plants from the roadsides so that the deer do not want to come near

the cars (Facts). The deer’s population density is getting too high and we are trying to

manage it. This will get harder because there are few limiting factors. In 1998 the white-

tail deer population was at about 67 deer per square mile (Potomac Highlands Watershed

School, 11). There have been many collisions with deer and humans and we want it to stop.

If people would be careful on roadways we can prevent accidents. By using these solutions,

 we can protect both the deer and humans’ safety.

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A and J homeowners club- Jefferson H.S

                                                                                                                              11/9/2009

  As a homeowner, deer are wonderful animals, but they can be pests a lot of the time. They

come up through the yard and help themselves to any of the shrubs and flowers that is growing

in the yard. During the winter time, I look forward to seeing the deer, but in the spring and

summer  they eat everything that is growing in the yard. Fences help a little, but deer have the

tendency to not care and jump over them. You can always plant deer repellent flowers like

bleeding hearts and fox glove flowers. You can also buy deer repellent, that also helps. My

opinion in this case is to buy deer resistant plants to help the front of you house look nice and

refreshed. The government should support the cost of putting up more resistant fence and ways

 to keep the deer population out of peoples yards. They also need to stop building so many

housing developments and killing the deer environment like the forest and mountain top removal.

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DEER ON PROPERTY- Kemps Landing Magnet S. 6th grade

                                                                                                                            11/10/2009

Homeowners Against Deer: H.A.D

Deer are some of the cutest animals in the world, but when they invade our property than

we look at them as if they are as ferocious as a lion.  In the wild is where dear belong,

when they invade our property that is when we have to take action.  There are many ways

to keep dear off homeowner’s property such as invisible shock fences; the best way is to

use visible fences that are deer proof.

  When deer attack our property we have to take action, if you are really extreme and

want the deer to definitely comeback you could get a small cap guns to scare them off

with a loud bang or crash.  Another is that a pet like a dog could scare them off.  Their

main predators are coyotes and bobcats, so the dog noise may frighten them off.  Their

part in the ecosystem is important, once they eat all the plants in a forest they come for

our gardens.  So it is important that the environment is supplying the foods the deer need. 

Also if the deer run out of food and our gardens our protected the population will

decrease which is good with today’s amount of deer.

  When deer jump out of the middle of nowhere when you’re going down a road  and they

cause a big pileup, this is because there trying to find new land to live on because their land

 is either polluted by humans or they have already eaten all the food there.

  The gate will keep out the deer, but small rodents are bound to get in, sprays may work

for this but it may affect the crops or flowers that are growing.  Although deer are some

of the cutest animals on the outside they can really do some damage.

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