Advice on fencing and setting up zones on lumberjack property

Hi neighbors,

I'm starting to work on a map for the new place. I have zero experience as a timber farmer, and the land has been managed as a hobby timber farm by a firewood hoarder for 25 years. There are logging trails for ATV, and it all makes sense, but I can't see it. I need to decide on new digs for the dog and the chickens. There is a lean-to for a kennel and another lean-to is being planned for the chickens until, hopefully, their new run is up in the fall. I'm having trouble deciding where to put the larger dog perimeter fencing.

I find dogs to be very harmonious useful parts of a permaculture system that includes humans. Ours eats up stray chicken poop and scrap food, provides company and morale, and most imporantly provides a strong deterrent to the many wild animals that would otherwise terrorize our zones 1 and 2, including moose if you can believe it. They don't like to lose but our dog is super annoying and they don't come into the yard by the house any more. We see coyote and lion scat all over zone 3, but no wolves and few bears outside of zone 4 and 5, which is how I like it. They lose a little territory, and access to the copious chicken-associated mice and barn cats, but they maintain free access to pass all around us with no conflicts yet, apart from an occasional errant bird.

It's working well so at the new place, which is in the same area, I want to also enclose zone 1 and 2 in a perimeter fence with the chickens and the dog. I have a spot in mind further out for the sheep we hope to try next year that won't conflict with the ATV trails, but they all converge on the house and shop and garden, and I can't figure out how to enclose a good portion of zone 0/1/2 without cutting off trails, or using a ton of gates. There are four trails and a driveway that enter the center like spokes on a wheel, and dozens of footpaths. The house is in the worst quadrant to be included. And it doesn't feel like it would match the character of the place to put up any fences at all. The designer was a lumberjack, firewood hoarder, and avid hunter. He liked his lions up close and personal, and the place is crawling with deer.

Have you seen a set up like this with a perimeter fence? Did it enclose the whole thing, or just a quadrant? I will try to update with drawings.

It sounds like a complex set-up.

Sounds fun with all those ATV trails.

Part of the fun we had was exploring all our 40 acres.  Some ATV trails would have worked though we used all the deer trails.

I don't understand the `managed as a hobby timber farm by a firewood hoarder for 25 years` part.

I enjoy my woods and don`t want them cut down though I am not a hoarder.

Why cut a tree down when they are so beautiful?

Well I haven't been so envious reading a Permies post in a while...

Anyways, I think off hand I would just fence what you want or need to fence and put a few gates where necessary. Then you could reroute the existing trails outside of the fence with some new connector trails to stitch the network back together.