Rareboy I'm with you about deer and other wildlife!
We have loads of deer who have become full time residents and have adapted very well to humans. The thing about them that we like most is that they are all street smart and have learned to watch traffic before crossing roads. It's very funny to watch them do it when there's several does with fawns. Also it's funny just two blocks away on a hillside at our only traffic light the deer will meet up there most days to relax and watch cars pass by -- seldom less than 20 at a time laying there like they own the place, just yards from the intersection.
I'm a native bird fanatic thanks to my Mom being a life long Audubon Society member. That means we've declared war on butt ugly Starlings that aren't native to the US that compete for food and nest sites for out native birds like yellow warblers who are as timid and shy as they are pretty.
I don't know what part of Canada you're in but curious if you get fledgling arctic owls during the winter. This winter we only had two and they didn't stay around long. Usually we have half a dozen around town until mid April. Some of us set out plastic kiddie pools to hold mice to feed them during winter. Also when the other birds' eggs start hatching in April /May we put bait shop crickets in the kiddie pools for the parents to feed the babies.
Do you have ground squirrels? (not prairie dogs!) They're pests around here only because they get into any flower beds and my cats like bringing them ALIVE in the house and bringing them as presents when we're in bed.
Jeez. I can't stop thinking about 14,000 trees. I really do envy you to have so many of them. I'll trade you all the grass you want. hahahahahaha!
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Wow.
I can't even count that high.
In my youth, yes, we occasionally planted trees. Grew up on a farm… nothing like what you're describing, though. But we had a good sized wooded area that ran along the creeks and in the autumn we (me and dad) were always clearing undergrowth, cutting down and chopping up dead ones for firewood, and in the spring planting new ones. We had HUGE maples all around the house.
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[MENTION=21084]Virge[/MENTION] can we send some NJ deer to SD to learn to watch traffic? The ones here get creamed on a regular basis (sadly they are getting crowded out by over-development). We've had more frequent human encounters with bears and even coyotes for the same reason.
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I live in a pinon juniper ecozone. The pinon jays plant the trees here so I don't have to do it. I just have to protect them from the constant deer browsing until they get well above deer browsing height. I've got some aspens too but the deer love the bark and will kill them in a night if they get access to them.
[MENTION=21084]Virge[/MENTION] to establish trees in those conditions you have to plant a deep windbreak. Starting (for you) on the northwest you plant a row of evergreen shrubs that reach 2' high, then a row of evergreen shrubs that reach 6' high, then a row of trees that reach 10 - 12 feet high. Keep going with rows of taller and taller species. You're trying to grow plants in a scoop pattern that lets 50% of the wind through and pushes the other half of the wind up away from the ground. You don't want a solid structure to stop the wind because that creates turbulence. By the time you are 30 - 50 feet deep in the wind break, the strong winds are up high and the weaker winds coming through the break is slowed and flowing in a more coherent way, like a laminar flow. Then you finally have a chance to plant a row of trees that you really want. If you get your wind break at 50% permeability you can get a sheltered area of a length that is 10x its height on the leeward side, after which those desiccating defoliating winds drop back down to the ground. For example, a deep windbreak 12 feet high at 50% wind permeability gives you up to 120 feet of effect. Look at pioneer species like hackberry, eastern red cedar, locust, etc. You're not trying to make the windbreak out of pretty trees. Your desirable trees need the shelter that the pioneer species create. Do an search on pioneer species south dakota for possible plants.
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Life outside the city, it is healthy. Nature, trees, fresh air. it is pleasant to me as you write.
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[MENTION=20941]Camfer[/MENTION] ... Thanks for that... But real windbreaks have some shitty unintended consequences up here. They're nice to have for the five snowless months. But for the seven months with snow they become snow collectors. We've got a 3 ft hedge on the east of the driveway that makes a 3 ft tall drift that stretches 25 feet out in the front yard with just a half inch of snow. hahhahahaha! The big joke about our wind and snow up here is that we just wait two days for the snow to go to Nebraska. That's about the truth with powder snow. We can have 2 feet of it fall on Monday and by Wednesday most of it is gone if the normal 35 mph winds start up.
You described just about exactly what my parents did to the house we moved into when I was 6. They did it to make a real windbreak and they sure made one!!!! Now all the spruces are big I can go out there some years in June and make snowballs. They'll have drifts 8 ft high when there's no snow left anywhere. It doesn't help that they planted loads of short shady trees on the downwind side of it either. They keep the sun from warming things up an melting the snow.
If we had the room I might do that. I've just about done away with all the snow traps on my property but I usually have to get out and shovel snow from the asparagus growing on the east side of the house about the time I have to start mowing grass. Earlier this winter I brought back a trailer full of trees for a nursery here from Tennessee. Dogwoods and some others that flower. I looked the up on the internet and might try a few of them this summer just to have something nice. I know where I'll have to plant them -- on the east side of the house where they'll be protected from wind and maybe make some shade for the dogs.
[MENTION=21495]Rareboy[/MENTION] ..... I'm still in a daze about 14,000 trees. The last time Jay and I made the 5 hour drive east to Sioux Falls he counted the trees. I think he came up with 78. And there you are hogging up all the damned trees.
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Yep Virge, that's the 10x effect. 3 foot hedge and you get 30' wide swath of snow built up on the leeward side! Ya gotta put these things in the right place.
If you get a dogwood *tree* surviving outdoors in SD for 3 years I am going to drive up and take a picture of it. All you can probably do is the shrubby ones like C. alba, alternafolia, canadensis, etc. Actually Cornus stolonifera, red-osier dogwood, is a classic permaculture windbreak plant for your ecozone.
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