Deer Exclosures at JK Black Oak: The Fences Are In

After eight months and five volunteer work days, the three deer exclosure fences have been installed in the oak-hickory forest at JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary. The first two fences were installed in November and December of 2022. After the winter break, work on the third, and largest, fence began in May and took three work days to complete.

On July 8, a group of 18 volunteers led by Gerco Hoogeweg showed up to finish the fence project. One group tackled the final sections of the fence while the other group started removing invasive plants inside the new fence. Some of the invasives were easy, if tedious, to remove such as the Japanese Honeysuckle and small Oriental Bittersweet vines that scrambled across the ground. Other invasives, particularly in one corner, required tools and tenacity to remove, including Japanese Barberry, Multiflora Rose and Tree of Heaven.

Now that the fences are in, what’s next?  We will be monitoring all three fences to see what native trees and other native plants will come up inside the fences now that they are protected from being eaten by white-tailed deer.  Our monitoring program includes setting up seedling plots in each of the three fenced in areas. Within these small seedlings plots we will count every native tree once a year for the next three years in accordance with the terms of the grant that Loudoun Wildlife received.

We will also be keeping an eye on the invasives inside the fences.  Future work days will occasionally be devoted to removing vines climbing up the fences and unwanted plants inside the fences. Over time we should see fewer and fewer invasives as the emerging plants are removed and deer are prevented from spreading them inside the fences.

As part of the ongoing monitoring, we also set up two trail cams outside the 50 x 50 foot deer exclosure.  This will allow us to observe wildlife behavior and see how wildlife interacts with the fence. White ribbons were tied along the fences to show that a barrier is in place. This should help prevent wildlife from colliding with the fences.

Funding for the fence project was provided by a generous grant from Microsoft in collaboration with the Society for Ecological Restoration for standards-based ecological restoration.

To protect the environmentally sensitive habitat and rare species, JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary is not open for general public access.