Mike Limatola and crew put up some of the signs on the deer exclosure that explain its purpose and to warn against playing on or climbing the fence.

Fyke Nature Association plans to post an interpretive sign at the exclosure that reads:

PROTECTING NATURE

For more than a decade, the region’s ever-expanding White-tailed Deer population has been devouring the 107-acre Celery Farm Natural Area’s native plants.

The Fyke Nature Association has created this deer exclosure to regenerate one patch of understory and show what a healthy forest looks like.

Once this section rebounds, you will be able to compare it to the adjacent unprotected areas and see the impact that deer have on our environment. In this protected portion of the preserve, native plants will flourish, and so will the birds, small mammals, butterflies and nature’s other creations that depend on them.

Fyke wishes to thank the New Jersey Conservation Foundation for the generous Franklin Parker Grant that helped make this deer exclosure possible.

The exclosure, which takes up roughly 3/4 of an acre in the heart of the 107-acre preserve was not done out of the blue. It is a result of an environmental survey that the Fyke Nature Association commissioned in early 2018 by the Land Conservancy of New Jersey.

You can read the entire report here:

Download CeleryFarmManagementPlanFinal(7)