What is a Slash Wall?
What is a Slash Wall?
Length: 00:01:30 | Sanford S. Smith, Ph.D., Michael Powell
Slash walls are a new method for excluding deer from vulnerable sites in forests. In places where a timber harvest or natural disturbance has occurred, overabundant deer are likely to over browse and destroy new tree seedlings and stump sprouts that are essential for regenerating the forest. Slash walls were first used successfully at the Cornell University Arnot Forest in western New York in 2017. Because of their effectiveness, the use of slash walls spread to nearby states. The benefits of slash walls include the use of natural materials found on site, lower costs and maintenance than traditional woven wire fencing, and the creation of wildlife cover for small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.
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[MIKE POWELL] Hi.
This is Mike Powell from Penn State Extension, the Forestry Wildlife Team, and today I'm here to talk to you about a slash wall.
A slash wall is an alternative to deer fencing.
It's an exclosure, and it's made up of natural material leftover from a timber harvest, the top, the branches, and unusable material that would have no other home.
It is made up of larger diameter, working its way up from the bottom with that, to smaller stuff at the top.
So, you might be wondering, what are we trying to exclude from this area?
And that is deer, 'cause the deer will eat the regeneration, which is small trees that are coming back up from stump sprouts and/or the seed and native plants that are beneficial for other wildlife.
The benefits of a slash wall.
They're about a third the cost of a woven wire fence, they utilize all the material right on site to build, and they also provide habitat for small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and bird species.
They have a very low maintenance.
If a tree falls on a woven wire fence, we have to find that pretty quickly so the deer cannot get in.
If it falls on here, it's not really gonna bust down the wall, and we can incorporate that material back into the wall.
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