by Aisling Doyle Wade, UW Farm Production Manager

Later this month, the farm team will be beginning construction on a project that is long in the making, a perimeter fence around our Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) site. 

In the 2024 season, the farm team experienced an escalation of a relatively new challenge – a growing population of urban deer eating farm crops! Unlike bunnies, rodents & crows (our other animal trouble makers), deer are relatively large animals and, as anyone who has tried to garden in the presence of deer will understand, they can cause quite a lot of damage to a farm like ours. Deer are happy to eat many of the things we grow and they are not easy to exclude with make-shift fences or crop-coverings.

The 2024 season was extremely challenging in this regard and the farm experienced significant crop losses in our flowers, tomatoes, lettuces, beans, peppers and potatoes. The deer were spotted several times, frequenting the farm as a family unit in the early morning and dusk hours of the day. Given the pressure of the growing season, we did our best to develop temporary solutions such as nets and removable fence, but that was labor intensive and not cost effective. 

We also want to avoid poisons, pellet guns, or eliminate the deer from their urban habitat. Rather, we hope to deter them and coexist. Management strategies are available that are organic and also manage people, safeguard research, and crops. We began discussing the long-term goal of building a deer-proof, 8ft tall fence around the CUH site. 

As with any large project at the UW Farm, there were many steps we had to take before we could begin such a project. We had to consider funding for what is ultimately a significantly expensive project. We were required to consult with all of our partners and stakeholders and the University Design Review Board to ensure that a fence would not negatively impact other activities at the Center for Urban Horticulture, UW Botanic Gardens programs, and the campus community.

While we had hopped to begin construction last season (2025), we were not able to get our ducks in a row early enough to begin work before the busy season. In 2025, we fared better against the deer, having learned from some of our 2024 experiences. One huge improvement was the addition of two Caterpillar tunnels (temporary, unheated plastic covered tunnels, see photo right) last spring, which we built with the help of community volunteer Joel Rosen and students from UW Engineers Without Boarders club. These tunnels provided deer exclusion (along with extra heat!) for our 2025 tomato crop. 

However, deer predation still caused crop losses in 2025. Additionally, other challenges unique to running an urban farm have intensified this season. Within the last two weeks, our CUH farm was targeted by one attempted and two successful break-ins. In broad daylight both times, thieves were able to break into our various sheds and steal over $1200 worth of power tools and other equipment. While we do not intend for our perimeter fence to exclude humans from the farm entirely, quite the opposite, we hope that having a more secure perimeter will deter vandalism, burglaries and other damaging behavior and invite others via new signage to roam the paths. 

It is of course a loss of sorts to build a fence around the farm. We love how many people walk through the farm on a regular basis and interact with us as we do our work. We also know that the farm is an important place for many neighbors, birdwatchers, nature lovers and local gardeners to access.

The view-scape will also be altered. The fence will have grapes vines and honey suckle vines, adding to the beauty, crops and pollination plants, but breaking up the view in places.

Our goal here is not to cut off any of that access, but of course we acknowledge that this will be a change. Our plan is to build the fence in stages and to maintain unlocked gates which will be left open during the day and closed (but not locked) at night.

This spring, during our Spring Break Infrastructure Week, we will be building the first part of this fence – along the south side of the farm where historically the deer have been mostly heavily witnessed entering and exiting. 

If you have interest in this project or want to lend a hand, we invite you to join us for infrastructure focused farm shifts during the week of spring break – March 23rd through 27th. Thank you for your understanding and support!