Friends of Rye Nature Center (FRNC) is seeking $300,000 in state funding to build three more deer exclosures comprising 10.8 acres of its 47 acres. Years of heavy deer browsing have left the beloved preserve with few young trees, little ground cover and a widespread issue with invasive species.
If successful, funding the three new exclosures would add to the existing 6.89 acres already enclosed by two deer fences. The nature center’s 2014 North Existing Deer Fence is a clear demonstration of forest recovery when deer pressure is removed. The nonprofit’s plan says its 12 year old enclosure now has more saplings, denser ground cover and fewer invasive plants than comparable woods just outside the fence.
The FRNC project comes as Rye’s Deer Management Committee (DMC) weighs how to address deer overabundance citywide. Allowing for higher fencing is one of the pillars the DMC is expected to advance in its recommendations to Rye City Council this January. In fact, the DMC has cited the research done on the nature centers’ fenced areas as it has worked to develop its recommendations.Â
Over the past year, the committee heard from a Cornell deer researcher, conducted a deer count via drone and received findings from forest ecologist Danielle Begley-Miller. At the DMC’s October 29 meeting, Begley-Miller reported that heavy deer browsing was undermining forest regeneration and biodiversity in Rye.Â
It is important to point out that a change to the City of Rye law raising the fencing height from a 6 feet maximum to 8+ feet is an important part of any plan to manage deer impacts across the city. However, it would be both cost-prohibitive and impractical to fence entire parts of the city, such as the 147 acres of Marshlands Conservancy or the 179 acres of Edith Read Wildlife Sanctuary or many other wide swaths of open space. An integrated approach will be needed.
READ the FRNC deer fence work plan document:
