Having gone to great lengths to protect areas of our woodland from deer by erecting fencing, our greatest fear is that a fallen tree—or even heavy branches—might create gaps that deer will quickly discover. This has happened twice in recent months: once when a fallen branch breached the original deer exclosure, and about a month ago when a tree brought down an entire corner of the fence around the newest clearing. In both cases, there was clear evidence that the deer found the gaps very quickly.

In the original exclosure, they concentrated on eating bramble and fortunately ignored some hazel saplings planted last summer. In the second case, they nibbled the tops of a few shoots on some oak stools. Luckily, in both incidents the damage was spotted within a couple of days, and we were able to make repairs before too much harm was done.

In the latter case, we initially put up a temporary barrier until tree surgeon Nicky Tranter very generously cut up the fallen tree—free of charge—allowing us to properly restore the fencing later. We are extremely grateful to Nicky for taking on a task that would have been difficult for us to manage.

This post is therefore a request to anyone walking near the quillets: please take a slight detour around the exclosures, check that the fencing is intact, and let us know if you notice any gaps. Those of us in Chapel Lawn will be especially vigilant after storms, but as the last two incidents have shown, the deer are very quick to take advantage.

Many thanks.