Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat W.H.I.P. development

How big are the Norway Spruce seedlings you are thinking of planting? Little ones about 2 feet tall just take a single shovel notch in the ground, drop all the roots in, and close with a foot print. Carrying all the seedlings around will take longer than planting them.

Having put in 6-7 varieties of evergreens, I have found Norways to be fairly safe from deer predation (compared to White Pine, which is like candy for whitetails). However, deer will nibble on spruce in the lean months of the year (right about now). So if you can put some wire (or other) deer shields around small Norway saplings, at least before next Winter, it will improve their chances.

Once a spruce hits 6 feet tall or so, I consider them deer-proof except for possible use as rubs in the Fall. Since you have a lot of woods, the deer may have no special reason to bother the spruce this way.

P.S. Have you considered any small crab apple type trees? I think they are nice for wildlife. I don't know any species info - we just have them as volunteers.