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Deer Thrive On Seedling Diet

By Jim Stirling
Copyright 1996 Contact publisher for permission to use

Forgive Stan Holmes for not viewing the little deer of the Queen Charlotte Islands as cute, Bambi-like creatures. "They are no friends of ours whatsoever," grumbles the divisional forester for MacMillan Bloedel Limited's Queen Charlotte Division based in Juskatla on Graham Island.

"The deer love cedar seedlings and spruce when it first flushes. Everywhere, but especially where hunting pressure is low - near camps for example - the deer run rampant and their browsing is a very big concern." The division has allotted $1.92 million to protect cedar and yellow cedar seedlings from deer damage in 1996.

And it's an uphill struggle. The Sitka black tail deer are not indigenous to the Queen Charlottes (or Haida Gwaii, as the islands are also called). It is believed they were introduced by missionaries early this century. It is known they have flourished. Population estimates vary but there are definitely lots of them. That's despite the most liberal deer hunting regulations in the province. Hunting bucks is legal for nine months of the year and there's an antlerless season.

A hunter can legally take 10 animals a year with a possession limit of three. Lack of natural predation is one reason for the deer's abundance. Black bears taking fawns in the spring are rare exceptions. The deer's bountiful acclimatization goes head to head with the prodigious growth of Queen Charlotte Island's forests. "Trees grow like stink," assesses Holmes simply.

The Charlottes possess a blessed combination of fertile soils and wet, sea-tempered climate, ideal for tree growth. Holmes says trees can add 30 cubic metres per hectare per year on the best growing sites. The average for MB's Charlotte block of TFL 39 is 10 to 11 cubic metres a year. Imagine leader growth of 1.4 metres a year.

By contrast, average growth in the BC interior is two cubic metres a year. Natural re-generation has proven successful in the Queen Charlottes but MB has in recent years pursued a more aggressive planting campaign. Holmes explains the reason is mainly driven by introduction of BC's Forest Practices Code to free up available timber.

Planting has increased from about 700,000 seedlings in 1994 to 1.1 million in 1995 and an expected 1.29 million in 1996. The seedlings will be about 50 per cent spruce, 30 per cent cedar and the balance a mix of hemlock, yellow cedar and pine. The anticipated planting program for 1997 is 1.5 million seedlings.

In addition, MB's Charlotte division spaces about 500 hectares a year and manually brushed about another 300 hectares a year. Protecting tree seedlings from rampaging deer becomes increasingly important with the investment in planting stock and establishment costs. Tree seedlings are most vulnerable up to a height of about 1.2 metres.

Once they grow taller than that they're out of browse height for the little deer that prefer to eat with their heads down. MB and other forest companies on the Charlottes have tried several methods to keep the deer from the seedlings. "We did trials using cougar urine but that was a complete failure," reports Holmes. On the cougarless Charlottes, the deer didn't know they were supposed to be scared.

"We've tried laying out biodegradable plastic netting held down with metal pins. The problem is the trees will bend and go through the netting." MB has tried hiding the seedlings in slash, which can work until deer discover them and browse the pocket.

This year's seedling protection strategy is three-fold. Spruce seedlings will be dipped or sprayed before planting with a Swedish-made repellent called Plant Skyd. Holmes says its effectiveness lasts about five months before seedlings again become susceptible to browse. Deer will leave spruce alone when the needles harden and become sharp.

Cedar seedlings will be fertilized at the time of planting to give them a kick start toward the magic 1.2 metre height and comparative safety from browse. Cedar seedlings will also be protected by encasing them in corrugated plastic tubes tied down with wooden stakes. But labour-intensive methods like that dramatically add to costs.

Tubing-style protection methods represent five times the cost of planting seedlings, according to industry estimates. The tubes are also susceptible to being blown down or knocked over by feeding deer. All of which sounds a little like waging a losing battle. It's small comfort to note the Charlottes would have a horrendous brush control program given such favorable growing conditions if it weren't for the deer largely keeping it in check.

But for the forseeable future, the seedling-deer conundrum will remain a fact of Queen Charlotte Island life and a silvicultural cost of doing business for its forest companies.

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