Recent Documents:

• Pound Ridge: The User's Guide
• A Guide to Preserving Pound Ridge Wetlands
• 2009 Citizens' Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program flyer
• Greenway Compact Plan Adoption

Recent Mailers:

• Healthy Lawns  new!!
• Deer Season
• Septic Systems
• Coyotes
• Composting
• Water & Septic Systems

About Deer Management in Pound Ridge

Deer Management is a significant concern to the Town of Pound Ridge. The following documents describe the issues, research, and hunting.

RESEARCH
Deer and Ticks
Management of Bird and Deer Population
Controlling Ticks

HUNTING
Deer Season in Pound Ridge
Pound Ridge Regulations

Many factors are contributing to the disappearance of the native plants of our region and the birds and butterflies that need them. The gardeners of Pound Ridge can play a part in slowing this decline in our area by adding some of these beautiful specimens to their landscape. 

Why should you use native plants? Native landscapes provide habitats for wildlife. They encourage the presence of beneficial insects and microorganisms that help keep these plants healthy without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In addition to not needing chemicals, once these natives are established in appropriate sites, they don't need supplemental watering (except during extreme drought). The native garden is economical in time and money, it is ecological, it lets your landscape fit into its surroundings and offers a welcome place for you and your family. 

For those of you without deer fencing the following is a list of 'deer tolerant' native plants (such as the New York Aster shown). It was put together not just from a list of plants but by a gardener with experience here in Pound Ridge. For those with fences there are too many other stunning natives to be listed here.

There are no truly deer resistant plants; any plant when eaten repeatedly will succumb and deer will eat ANYTHING when hungry enough.  However the following list is a compilation from personal experience and observation and several existing lists of "deer proof plants". 

Recommended, deer tolerant, native plants for gardening, land restoration in Pound Ridge
For more detailed information on the character, growing conditions, and wildlife benefits of any plant consult the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center's native plant database or good native plant catalogues and reference books.

Invasive Plants Brochure - how to recognize them, and how to deal with them.

Early Detection of Invasive Plants by Region

 Plants that protect against winter road salt

• Native Plants (Summersweet shown)
• Non-native Trees
• Non-native Shrubs

Gardening & Landscaping Practices: Conditions To Promote

• Buffers  
• More on Native Plants
• Wetlands
• Beneficial_Insects
• Creating A Wildlife Habitat
• Birds & Birding
• Butterflies -  1   2

Gardening & Landscaping Practices: Conditions To Avoid

• Runoff 
• Hard Surfaces 
• Invaders - 1 2
• Pesticide Reduction
• Seeping Septic

• About Water and Air Quality 
• About Wetlands, Streams, and Ponds 
• Brochures about reducing pesticides in your home and garden 
• Garden Guide
• Guide to Handling Houehold Chemicals
• About Ground Water and Drinking Water - from the EPA 
• Water Efficiency in the Home
• Backyard Habitat
• Lake Management - from the Lake Management Association   
• EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline : (800) 426-4791

Fall Landscaping Tip

Keep Leaves Away From Water's Edge.  Leave Leaves on Dry Land.

Property owners near streams and ponds and other watercourses are urged to avoid raking or blowing leaves or grass clippings into watercourses, water bodies, or wetlands. Instead, please instruct yard workers to compost them or broadcast them into the woods to decompose naturally away from the water's edge.

Leaves are a valuable resource for your plants and landscape and become fertile compost and soil necessary for your plants to thrive. Please, do not treat them as garbage and send them down stream, into the street, or into the storm drain. Instead, you can chop leaves with a mulching mower or shredder and rake them into landscaping beds to use as mulch. Create beds or natural areas in your landscape where leaves and organic materials can be recycled near where you are mowing or raking. Consider increasing the size and number of these natural areas and decreasing areas of your lawn that you do not use.

Leaves deposited in watercourses or wetlands can clog culverts, and make the waterway shallower and thereby more prone to flooding and create the need for expensive dredging. Shallower waterways create thermal pollution, which means warmer water, which is harmful to insects, fish, and other aquatic life. They also deposit excess nutrients into the water and, along with any fertilizers used near by, promote unattractive and deadly algal growth, oxygen depletion, fish kills, and impure water.