Question about putting up fence

Trees can be very good in my opinion. They offer shade and help break wind gusts that deer are not fond of. They also help with giving a sight barrier to help calm your deer.

There are some downfalls or risks inherent to trees. If they are mature trees they do pose a threat of taking out a fence in a wind storm. My opinion is to assess the health of the tree/trees near a fence line and if necessary you can cut down tall trees to a pruned level so they have plenty of strength to support limbs that may be within reach of the fence. Even after you put up a fence you can still maintain a healthy tree line. It just takes more effort.

My pens are in full woods and no problems yet.

You mentioned a creek that may come into play. Just remember worst case scenario of flooding when planning a fence around a creek.

like rusty mentioned cut down any trees that you see will make athreat to your pens now or in the near future trees make great shade and wind barrier the creek can be a good asset for you especailly if it has a constant flow of water and its hard to get water to your pens your best bet might be to go look at some farms before putting your fence up

We have over 100 trees on our place and when ever we have a storm with high winds envolved I get nervous. Yes a tree can fall and easily take a portion of fence down but we have put an outside perimeter fence spaced about 80 feet away from our pens on all but one side and about 30 feet on that side. now the chance of one tree taking down both the pen and the perimeter is alot less likely. We still inspect after every storm to be sure. We are in the process of breaking the outside into areas that we can close of with gates should a tree fall. Why go to all the trouble? Our trees offer prtection from those scorching hot summer days,a wind break when those sub zero winds blow, and a variety of food for the deer with acorns and the leaves especially the maples. They gobble them up like candy. You might want to make sure you do not leave any choke cherry trees as I have been told that when a branch breaks and falls to the ground that the leaves contain prussic acid for several days after the branch dies. Prussic acid is poisnous and will kill a deer. We cut dozens of 30 foot cherries when we built our pens however most of them have sprouted and the deer readily eat the live leaves with no ill effect. Rick

Another thing about cherry trees: they seem to be the first to topple in a windstorm as they have no taproot. You are best to cut those out unless they are in no threat of reaching perimeter fence.