Short answer
It depends on where you live. The Game Commission banned deer feeding and the use of deer urine attractants inside Disease Management Area 4, a chronic wasting disease zone created in 2018 that covers part of Berks County and grew to about 743 square miles in 2020. Check the Game Commission's current DMA map for your address. Either way, feeding pulls deer toward your yard, which makes any garden or deer fence work harder.
What Disease Management Area 4 is
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal brain disease of deer. When it turns up in an area, the Pennsylvania Game Commission draws a Disease Management Area around it and sets special rules inside. DMA 4 was created on February 28, 2018, covering 346 square miles in parts of Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks counties. Inside it, feeding deer and using deer urine-based attractants are banned.
The Mercury reported at the time that the area reached into western Berks, around Mohnton and Wyomissing. On June 25, 2020, the Game Commission expanded DMA 4 to about 743 square miles, roughly double its original size.
Is Oley, Exeter or Temple inside DMA 4? We haven't confirmed the current boundary for these areas, and DMA lines change as new cases are found. Look up your address on the Game Commission's CWD map before you put out feed, salt or minerals.
Why the rules differ across the county line
Montgomery and Chester counties are in the Game Commission's Southeast Special Regulations Area, along with Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia. Berks is not. In the Southeast area, hunters may bait deer on private property without a permit, but only with shelled corn or protein pellets, no more than 5 gallons, from automatic feeders. That's a hunting rule, not permission to feed deer for the view, and it doesn't carry over to Berks.
So a homeowner in Gilbertsville or North Coventry and a homeowner in Oley or Exeter can be working under very different deer rules, even though they live in neighboring counties. If you've moved across the line, don't assume your old habits still apply.
What feeding does to a fence
Whatever the law says at your address, feeding and fencing work against each other. A feeder, a salt block or a corn pile teaches deer to come to your yard every day. Once they're coming for the feed, the garden next to it is one hop away. That puts constant pressure on the fence:
- Deer test the weak spots: low corners, a gate left ajar, a gap where the mesh meets the ground.
- A 4 or 5 ft decorative fence that might have been enough on a quiet lot stops being enough.
- Deer that bed down near a feeding spot are close by when the garden ripens.
A Pennsylvania Game Commission officer quoted in Lancaster Farming recommends 8 ft deer fence for crops, over the older 6 ft high-tensile electric design. If you're putting in a garden or orchard fence in Oley, Exeter or Temple, the simplest step is to take the feeders away from that side of the property, or stop feeding altogether.
Height limits still apply
Muhlenberg Township, the main municipality in the Temple (19560) ZIP, caps fences and walls at 6 ft and allows barbed wire only for agricultural use. Exeter Township sets no numeric side or rear limit but requires fences over 10 ft to sit 5 ft off the lot line. Oley's fence rules we haven't verified, so we check with the township. At the estimate we'll match the deer pressure you're seeing to the tallest fence your township allows where you need it.
Common questions
Can I put out a salt or mineral block for deer in Berks?
The Game Commission's DMA 4 rules spell out what counts as feeding and which attractants are banned. Check the current DMA 4 rules on the Game Commission's site before putting out any attractant.
Does feeding birds count as feeding deer?
The DMA rules are aimed at deer. In practice, spilled seed under a bird feeder draws deer too, so if deer are a problem near your fence, move the feeders or use a tray that catches spills.
Will a fence help keep CWD away from my yard?
A fence keeps deer off the area it encloses. It doesn't treat or prevent disease in the wild herd, but it does stop deer from gathering on the ground you've fenced.