Today, I removed the netting used to keep deer from destroying native shrubs that were planted in the woods near my house several years ago. I've been worried that critters would fail to see the netting, now that it's partly covered with vines, and get trapped in it.

Sadly, I did find a bird that had flown into the netting and become strangled. I feel terrible!

poor Muddy, poor bird.. that's one reason I stopped using netting on my blueberries

Muddy.
Seems your concern was confirmed. Hopefully those several years have given those shrubs a chance to hunker in and many birds and other creatures will be sustained by your restoration efforts

Not sure if I mentioned this before or not but perhaps it bears repeating.

A community here with 200 acres of 'common' woods has implimented a restoration plan for same. They divided the common woods up into 2 acre plots and assigned a plot to each home owner to care for. Phase I has been removal of invasive plants specifically ivies and vines, with community work days scheduled
in conjunction with County/State and several environmental groups and tools on hand. In two years native plants are 'returning. Home owners who do not manage their plot are assessed additional Associations fees but over 80% have joined in the fun! * Yes, they also have a long range deer population management program. They hope to shift the yard and garden feeding back to forest, forest edge and expanded wild/natural areas throughout the community. Balance and sustainability are always moving and evolving challenges and opportunities.

*It's sooooo much easier to be out there working and doing when Wayne is out there working and doing, too!

Sally, I've gone on and on about the 'pick your own' blueberry farms up in Vermont:
some featuring live music performances by local artists and family picnicing while you pick, even full moon picking!

Some of the ways they 'protect' their crops are mylar strips and aluminum pie tins on lines over each row of bushes which they move according to which variety is currently ripe. Fake owls sitting on posts, and loud speakers blasting hawk shrieks randomly throughout the fields. Once a particular variety has been mostly picked, birds are welcome to glean the rest in between hawk shrieks! No netting.

One farmer lets his friendly free range chickens forage for dropped berries. Wonder if they'll lay blue eggs one day?

http://owlsheadfarm.wixsite.co...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

And my favorite
http://www.adamsberryfarm.com/

Interesting video on relocating a wild bee hive!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Blue eggs. Lol, extra antioxidants lol

I'm done with netting, too. I've rescued a chipmunk, a butterfly, and birds from it before.

That sounds like a great restoration program, Mariposa! I wish my HOA could do something like that, but I have given up on even trying to arrange for teenagers to get service hour credit for pulling non-native invasive plants.

The only native shrub seedlings with a decent chance of surviving and helping the birds are the Witch Hazels. One of the shrubs I "liberated" from netting was a Sumac, and I expect the deer will have eaten it to the ground next time I go to the area. Hopefully, by now it will have sent out shoots to the middle of the nearby blackberry patch, though, so it has a chance.

I have given up on ridding the area of non-natives and have just been planting Juniperus virginiana seedlings and tossing native perennial seeds there instead. Deer leave the Junipers alone , they'll shade out the Stiltgrass eventually, and they'll provide shelter and berries for all.

I've rescued a turtle stuck in a chain link fence and thousands of worms from drowning in puddles after a rain, and two whales but those are stories for another time.

My grandson thinks I should move to Vermont and work at Adam's Berry farm and that would be the best thing in the whole world...a gramma who lives in the country and all the blue berries he could ever eat! I agree.

I love blueberries, and have 3 wimpy shrubs. I gave up on getting any berries from them a long time ago; birds eat them as soon as they start to ripen. They still have gorgeous foliage, though, and are well worth the space they take.

muddy, you really tried!! a tough war to win

Thanks Sally.

There's a piece of state property where we walk Addy a lot. Goes to the marsh that I have posted pics of. Anyhoo, at the entrance you see vinca, Oriental bittersweet, forest grass, Siberian elm.. as you go in, it decreases. So, last time I went, I pulled a handful of forest grass to take home and burn. Then I really looked and saw how far along the trail it keeps popping up. Ugh. Now, truly, being state property we aren't supposed to do anything anyway. It's a fishing area, it is on their radar in some tiny way. But, next time we walk, in another local trashy piece of woods, I will try to have clippers in my pocket- just in case we get tangled in some bittersweet...

What is forest grass?

Sorry, I meant stiltgrass.
https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn....

Forest grass seems to mean Hakonechloa which is not the stiltgrass.
http://www.monrovia.com/plant-...

oh, okay. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw forest grass in the woods near me...but I haven't yet, fortunately.

Muddy1 said: I thought you all might enjoy this article, which was in my mother's local paper. I had been thinking of recommending to a neighbor that he get rid of the mistletoe in his maple tree, but not any more! http://www.blufftontoday.com/a...

This interested me but the link went bad. They have moved the article here:

https://www.blufftontoday.com/...