Daver
PMA Member
I believe this idea has been discussed somewhat here in years past, but I really thinking hard about installing a bridge or two on my farm. Short story, I a couple of areas where the ditches are DEEP and STEEP and while the deer will cross through there, it isn't as often as I think it should be. As I have continued to "morph" my land to facilitate more deer movement in the center of the farm I feel like the next step would be to open up comfortable travel ways from bedding to feeding...BUT...right smack in the middle of where I think it would be good...there's a deep ditch that they tend then to go clear around, etc.
One idea would be to install land bridges, aka berms or even pond dams, but it could be costly and very prone to clogging any outflow/overflow conditions I would think, as all of the "upstream" area is timber. I still may go this direction, but I also don't want to flood "upstream" timber for a pond-ish and/or create a maintenance scenario where I would always be worried about blowing out a dam due to the overflow getting clogged with debris, etc.
So, the other idea is to build a bridge(s) of some sort. I am confident that deer would use such a thing, provided it didn't spook them by being too rickety, etc. Has anyone else done/seen anything like this? Is there a max span that a deer would be comfortable with? Is there a max height above the ground below that they would use?
I am thinking that two telephone poles with some 2x6 decking on them and some sort of a non-skid cover/mat on top of them would probably work. Say 30' long, and about 15' over the top of the low spot in the creek bed below. Thoughts, ideas, etc?
One idea would be to install land bridges, aka berms or even pond dams, but it could be costly and very prone to clogging any outflow/overflow conditions I would think, as all of the "upstream" area is timber. I still may go this direction, but I also don't want to flood "upstream" timber for a pond-ish and/or create a maintenance scenario where I would always be worried about blowing out a dam due to the overflow getting clogged with debris, etc.
So, the other idea is to build a bridge(s) of some sort. I am confident that deer would use such a thing, provided it didn't spook them by being too rickety, etc. Has anyone else done/seen anything like this? Is there a max span that a deer would be comfortable with? Is there a max height above the ground below that they would use?
I am thinking that two telephone poles with some 2x6 decking on them and some sort of a non-skid cover/mat on top of them would probably work. Say 30' long, and about 15' over the top of the low spot in the creek bed below. Thoughts, ideas, etc?
