Better Deer Management is Needed

URWA has joined a coalition of diverse groups to work together for more effective deer management in the state. The goals of the coalition are to manage the deer herd for the ecological and economic health of our natural areas, farms, and working forests, and for human safety considerations related to Lyme disease and auto collisions. The following is an excerpt from a letter that the coalition sent to the Governor on September 23rd.

We are writing as a coalition of stewards of New Jersey’s natural heritage. We are non-profit groups, farmers, foresters, naturalists, gardeners, nurserymen, and sportsmen conservationists. Our work improves habitat for New Jersey’s wide range of plant and animal species, enables residents to experience both the common and uncommon as they explore the State’s natural places, and restores the function of the ecosystems which sustain us.  

We are writing to offer our assistance with an urgent but remediable problem that is degrading our forests and farms and reducing their ecological quality and productivity: the severe overpopulation of white-tailed deer.

The effects of deer overabundance are destroying the capacity of our forests to produce the next generation of trees, and jeopardizing the many benefits we receive from healthy, functioning ecosystems. Exotic plant invasions, agricultural losses, incidences of Lyme disease, and automobile accidents are all negative effects caused by deer overabundance.

The Coalition asked the Governor for immediate action to manage the New Jersey deer herd to bring it into balance with our natural habitats and human landscapes. The group specifically asked for improving access for hunters on large preserved properties owned and managed by non-profit organizations and to allow private landowners to qualify for differential tax assessment if they incorporate deer management plans into their “forest stewardship plan”. They also called for legislative and programmatic reforms including asking that the Fish and Game Council could determine necessary Game Code changes and that the “Hunters Helping the Hungry” program should be fully funded and enabled in order to supply venison to the needy on a statewide basis. This program allows hunters to harvest more deer while benefitting the neediest.

URWA was happy to join this proactive coalition which advocates for the health of our natural habits and therefore the health of our vital water supplies.