December 3, 2012 (Newark, NJ) – District 5 Freeholder Brendan W. Gill of Montclair, Chairman of the Freeholder Board’s Deer Population Control Committee, convened a meeting of his committee on Thursday, November 29, 2012, at the Hall of Records.
Director Salvante gave an overview of pertinent statistics, including the fact that a total of 2,654 deer have been removed from county property since 2008 (818 culled, 545 unborn fetuses, 1,291 killed in vehicle accidents on county roads). He also pointed out that the success of the County’s deer management program (whether due to culling or to the effectiveness of roadside reflectors) was manifested in the reduction in the number of deer killed on county roads: 182 (2012), 233 (2011), 229 (2010), 283 (2009), 363 (2008) and 303 (2007).
Bernier discussed the various elements of the deer management program and emphasized that the hunting aspect “…is not in any way intended to provide recreational sport.” He added, “The hunt is intended strictly for the purpose of deer management, and has three goals: to preserve bio-diversity in the county’s woodland and fields (especially its parks) by allowing for forest re-generation to reverse the damage done by the over-browsing of deer; to provide aesthetic and financial relief to homeowners whose landscaping has been damaged by deer; and to reduce the threat to public safety caused by deer-related motor vehicle accidents.” He also discussed the extensive efforts to notify the public of hunts, the stringent rules in-force to make the hunt as safe as possible, as well as the effort to use skilled and experienced marksmen and to include as many Essex County resident marksmen as possible.
Bernier also responded to questions from Freeholder Gill, other freeholders and members of the public about alternative population control means besides hunting. Regarding “trap-and-transfer”, he pointed out that it was attempted years ago in Essex County and failed; that is very difficult to accomplish, logistically; and that it often results in the death of deer from trauma and injury anyway. He also discussed the current impediments to the use of fertility control/immunocontraceptive drugs such as PZP and GonaCon: legality – the State requires that deer first must be captured, the drug must be administered by veterinarians, and permission must be granted in writing from all property owners within 2,000 feet of the designated darting area if the deer are to tranquilized prior to inoculation; cost - recent analyses indicate the cost to be $1,000 per deer, and likely higher here in Essex County, due mostly to the mandated participation of veterinarians; and application, the most problematic of all - 90% of the female deer must be immunized, they must be captured, tagged and kept track of to know when they must be re-treated, and they must be treated at least every year, if not every year. He went on to add that even if all of these impediments were to be worked out, the use of these drugs will only “…allow you tomaintain a population at or close to what it currently is; what it will not do is reduce the population.” “So, if you have too many deer already, fertility control agents are not going to bring that population down for at least ten years.”
Freeholder Gill emphasized the importance of moving forward with forest regeneration efforts and asked, “When are we going to reach the point where the number of deer is low enough that we won’t need to hunt anymore?” Bernier answered by saying that forest ecologists generally say a population of 20 deer per square mile will permit a healthy forest to survive, “…but, your forests are far from healthy and current research suggests you probably need to get the density down to about 5 per square mile in order for forest regeneration to really have the opportunity to succeed.” At the current rate, he indicated that the hunt in South Mountain Reservation would probably have to continue for another 2 or 3 years, that it would take longer at the Hilltop Reservation, and that at Eagle Rock, perhaps a hunt every other year for a while would suffice.
Source: http://www.essex-countynj.org/freeholders/site/index.php?section=120312DeerCmteMtg
Source: http://www.essex-countynj.org/freeholders/site/index.php?section=120312DeerCmteMtg
The problem is that there are too many deer in our area which has become not only an environmental problem, but a potential life threatening danger for drivers and its passengers. Personally i did not know that our local easily started deer were such a headache, and was affecting our environment in such a way. Concerning the point of an alternative population control of this deer infestation, it does not solve the present problem at hand which is the fact that there are already too many. By this rate it would only prevent the increase in the deer's population but yet continue the problem at hand. I believe that this method of controlling the deer population should be used after their population has been depleted. As stated in the text, this can be accomplished through hunting the animals.
ReplyDeleteDeer population increases and decreases a lot. It became a problem in our environment because mostly people use deers to hunt them down to use them for a certain purpose. The population of increase for deers have gone wild. It also reflects on the population of decrease. In my opinion, they are just animals. I think that there is no need to kill deers or drop the population of them. At the end of the day, they are jus animals trying to look for food and shelter.
ReplyDeleteI think that the deer culls was a problem to the environment because their were so many Deer in the forest because of the deer population growing wildly and that made it dangerous to walk . People used the Deers for other purposes like hunting down other animals and for driving but sooner or later it became to dangerous
ReplyDeletei think deer culling is very effective to handle this particular situation. The other alternatives do not work as effectively and are more expensive. I believe that deer culling is only acceptable up to a certain point. It should not be done until we wipe out the entire population. It should be done with close observation and for a limited amount of time. It is unfortunate that we have to kill these animals to better a situation but sometimes it's the only way we can make things better.
ReplyDeleteI am going to have to agree with Emmanuel and Jose. I believe that yes there is a lot of deers and yes it is increasing like crazy. But I feel that we should not use the deer culling until we wipe their whole population only when we need to. I understand that there is a lot of them but their just animals trying to live their lives like we are. They are just like us, our species population is rising beyond charts but you don't see that we are killing each other for population decrease. So I think we should just stop and only hunt them for certain time in a year like normally and nothing should change. But doing the deer culling is the only thing that can help but I honestly disagree with the act.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with the killing of animals but there doesn't seem to be a better choice. Every other aim at a solution to the problem is not as effective. Sometimes the best out of a bad situation may not look positive, but actually is. The goal they are reaching for is to help both the deer and human communities. As long as culling isn't taken farther than it has to go, I agree with the means of decreasing the population.
ReplyDeleteOn the deer culling idea, I consider myself neutral. I think that there is a bad outcome and a good one that would come out of that decision. The good part of this, is that there would be less deer, which would benefit people from not having their landscape affected by them. The bad part of this situation is that we have to kill the deer population. Some people actually love hunting a deer during the hunting season, and they won't be so happy about this decision being made. Less deer means less hunting for people. This is why I would be neutral in this situation.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is alot of deers, but their still living things just like our self's just trying to get by in life. Therefore I don't find it quite amusing why you will want to decrease the population of deers. A better idea in my opinion is try and move them some place else, where there a better environment. Yes, this will take time, but look at the bright side of things, there still amazing animals wanting to live their life's just like us humans. But doing the deer culling is a good idea, but I totally disagree with the act.
ReplyDeleteI believe deer hunting is a good and effective way to reduce the deer population. If you need a reason to justify it then just take a look at the reduction in forests. Deer hunting not only saves forests but also reduces the population of an animal that causes more than just forest issues. Deers wander into people's yards and destroy gardens and other prized vegetables. Deer hunting seems to be the only effective way to even scratch at the surface of the huge deer population. People may say its a terrible thing to kill animals like deer but the fact of the matter is there are so many anyway that the amount we kill won't even harm the deer population. In other words deers won't go extinct anytime soon. Deer culling is needed and if there way any other way that was cheaper and easier then I'm sure we would do it. Till then deer culling is a must need.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the deer culling is effective. The population of deer (shown in the statistics) seems to be way to high. The culling seems to be effective although it would take an extended period of time to do it. The other thing is that it sounds like it is very humane. I believe that it is a much better alternative than putting weapons into the situation. From the things I have read from this article deer culling sounds good.
ReplyDeleteAs a driver, it would be more helpful to me if less deer were on the road. The route I take to my home is full of deer. As being a new driver, a random deer running across the road would not be convenient for me or my car. The idea of having less deer but having enough to keep the forest healthy seems like a plan that will be good for both the deer and drivers.
ReplyDeleteThe deer cull is a pointless effort that can not be accomplished. There must be some purpose for the high number of deer. Maybe they eat some kind of plants that can over run an entire area. We have to remember that we are in their environment. That maybe the deer should have a human cull because there are too many of us in their habitat. The forest condition has nothing to do with the deer but where we choose to build buildings for our own convenience, we need to make it healthy for the deer.
ReplyDeleteI think that deer culling is an effective process. I think that this is a good way to get rid of deer. The only downside is it seems to take a long time to complete this process. But it is still better than just killing dear. Another reason I think deer culling is good because every year by Turtle Back zoo there is hunting to help lower the population. This is not that effective because it has to be done every year. So even though it would take longer I still think it would be more effective process that would better us and the deer.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Deer Culling is unneccessary. I believe that deer culling is useless just because its just killing population of deer in order to decrease the chances of a deer running onto the road. That is not going to change the fact that deers are running onto the road. This also waste time and energy when all that had to be done is to prevent the deers to run onto the road something that would defer them from getting on the roads in the first place. Deer culling is not helping the cause and it will also just give predators of the deer a harder time to find food (deer that make mistakes while animals hunt them).
ReplyDeleteI also believe that deer culling is a really good and effective way to reduce deer population. I see how when i hear about deers i always think of when they always get hunted down. i see how the deer population is insanely increasing. So the only way to decrease deer population is to hunt them down and kill them so that we will have a balance deer population. its the best solution to take care of the deer population.
ReplyDeleteI too agree that deer culling is effective because of all the problems. With people destroying the forest ,they are destroying the habitat and homes of the deer which means that they will come to the civilian society ,which means more car accidents more dead deer along the highways and more destruction of parks and fields because they have no where else to go and plus they are multiplying so with deer culling it will keep the population of deer at a size that is not too high but yet not dangerously low. It will suffice.
ReplyDeleteI believe that deer culling is efficient in maintaining a stable number of deer population but at the same time i feel myself sympathetic with these animals. It appears athough they're a hazard to us and we are invading their space rather than the opposite. Although we do need to look out for our own safety I feel as though we brought this issue upon ourselves. Similar to in the movie Avatar. Overall this method is productive I just feel as though it should not have needed to be necessary.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with most of the class about deer culling. Deer are becoming a danger with their population increasing but that does not mean we have to kill them just to decrease the population. I could see if deer were killing people and a MAJOR harm to society but they are not. People use them to hunt and hang in their homes. They are species just like the rest of us are, they are not harming anybody or anything so they should not be killed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a lot of deer's in Essex county the population rate is increasing a lot. We should not use the culling until we destroy the whole population. I think we should stop and hunt the deer for a certain time in a year. But I don't think that the deer culling is necessary to do but it is the only thing that can help with the cause. They do not harm nobody and do not destroy their ecosystem as well so why should they be killed.
ReplyDelete