by Diane Sagers

CORRESPONDENT

Santa was here Monday night. You couldn't miss the evidence he left, as we have cleaned up enough wrapping paper and boxes to attest to that. He came with his reindeer from Rudolph through Blitzen, but the evidence Santa left didn't come from the reindeer -- they are much too polite for that.

There is, nevertheless, evidence around some neighborhoods of deer presence. These deer aren't among Santa's set at all.

They are coming down from the mountains -- if they were ever there. Some have become so used to humans that they don't bother leaving very far even during the warm summer months. These deer make quite a picture of tranquility in some back yards where they lie resting in the snow or as they dig with their hooves looking for the fallen fruit and grass underneath the soft white blanket. It's almost like a vision of Bambi and his mother.

Not everyone buys into that tranquility act, however, because deer are browsers -- meaning they will browse on trees, shrubs and flower beds, possibly eating your prize specimens.

The deer make an annual pilgrimage down from the mountains in a quest for shelter, food and safety from predators that are as hungry as the deer are.

The snows have covered their natural food sources, forcing them lower to forage. Their choices of feeding grounds have purpose; they move higher in the summer months as the feed comes on, but they have always come into lower elevations to feed during the winter months.

In many cases, homes are built on what has traditionally been the animals' winter feeding range. As creatures of habit -- and as the deer have become more used to human presence -- they return to the same areas despite human encroachment. In some cases, people have made an open invitation to the wildlife by feeding them.

The deer consider haystacks a godsend. Many farmers on the outskirts of town and in outlying areas lose hay to the foraging of herds of these animals. Homeowners, too, get a dose of these animals as they graze on their yards. Getting rid of these animals them is easier said than done. Once they have found a constant food source and they become somewhat accustomed to people, the animals persist in eating what they can. And their list of accepted foods is pretty long.

They graze as high as they can reach on evergreens, and trample flower beds and bushes. Notice the arborvitaes at the Tooele City Cemetery; they have the look of a close shorn haircut around their lower branches as high as the marauding animals can reach. They seem to prefer Austrian, Scotch and Mugo pines and will chew the bark and young twigs off fruit trees. Damage to these trees may take the entire summer to rejuvenate.

They are also fond of junipers, euonymus, barberry and pyracantha bushes. They will dig through the snow for the tasty flavor of tulips and pansies, but they are not so fond of daffodils. Homeowners often find themselves replacing trees and other landscape plants in the spring.

The problem is "Now we have them, what do we do with them?" Some people enjoy having them near and will encourage their return. Others aren't so anxious. Killing them is illegal except in the case of special hunts.

Repellents are only somewhat effective unless there are alternate food sources available, because the animals are desperately hungry. If the animals are repelled from one yard, they simply move on to the next. If they have already invaded your yard, they know what goodies are available there.

Commercial repellents such as Kindred and Ropel are of limited effectiveness. The animals' drive to eat exceeds their repulsion to bars of soap, hot peppers mixed in eggs, bloodmeal, stinky or obnoxious compounds. This hunger drive even exceeds fear generated when lion dung from zoos or human hair is placed around the yard. Flashing lights, scarecrows and wind chimes are effective for only a few nights, before they catch on and come back.

Dogs create a dilemma in relation to wild animals. If a dog is turned loose, it will chase deer and elk for long distances and have been known attack the weary prey. If the dog is tied up, the deer tend to watch and soon realize that it has limited space it can reach.

The very best deterrent to deer invasions is a high fence. But most of us are somewhat friendly with our neighbors and don't relish having a 10-foot-high barbed wire fence completely around our yard. A low fence is a small deterrent.

A better approach is to select plants that are not particularly inviting or that bounce back quickly from damage. The animals are not attracted to dine on many native plants and some that have been introduced. Take a look in nearby mountains at healthy plants to get ideas of what comes back and survives deer browsing. Among them are spruces, Norway maples, cottonwood, scrub oak, Rocky Mountain maple, narrow leaf cottonwood, red osier dogwood and potentilla.

Other plants resilient enough to bounce back quickly after winter grazing are grace serviceberry, cliff rose and sages.

A rule of thumb to help find suitable landscape materials is to look to local mountains for those plants that thrive year after year. These are the ones that can withstand the browsing of deer and elk and bounce back.

Your kinship with deer can be encouraged or hampered by the methods you use to withstand them.