Activists protest hunt to cull what others consider a suburban nuisance — deer

A dozen people converged on a Verona sidewalk Saturday and held posters aloft to support what many consider a suburban nuisance, or even menace – white tailed deer.

Their signs said, “Birth control for deer, not killing,” and “It’s their home, let them roam,” and “Stop the cruelty.”

They were protesting the annual effort by Essex County to cull the deer population in the county’s Hilltop Reservation in Verona, Cedar Grove and North Caldwell, and South Orange Reservation in Maplewood, West Orange and Millburn.

“There are other methods of dealing with the deer population,” said Diane Hoffman of Montclair. “We need to coexist. Killing is definitely not the option to take. It’s cruel and teaches our children that killing is a solution.”

The issue has become a heated one in many of North Jersey’s suburban communities. Drivers frequently crash into deer on the roads and nature preserve managers bemoan the devastation of their forest understory by deer that eat the vegetation bare, including at Flat Rock Brook Nature Center in Englewood, Greenbrook Sanctuary in Tenafly and Garret Mountain in Woodland Park.

But the simplest solution – targeted hunting in nature preserves – runs into deep opposition from some residents who view the practice as cruel and unnecessary.

“We keep taking the deer habitat away by building strip malls and housing complexes,” said Kim Nagelhout of Park Ridge, a nature photography enthusiast who participated in Saturday’s protest.

Her husband, Mark Nagelhout, agreed. “Hunting the deer in the nature preserves just pushes them further into developed areas,” he said. “We need a regional non-lethal approach.”

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The Nagelhouts are board members of the Demarest Nature Center in Demarest. They said the center has a healthy deer population but no problems with the understory being eaten bare. They are trying to figure out why, when other preserves nearby have such a problem. They think it might be because the nature center’s property includes wetlands.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo has called the annual culling of deer at South Mountain Reservation and Hilltop Reservation a proven way to reduce the population enough to help preserve forest habitat and maintain the natural areas as key resources for recreation and open space.

The Hilltop Reservation culling started last week. It will continue on Tuesdays, Feb. 13 and 20, and Thursdays, Feb. 15 and 22. The reservation is closed to the public those days.

During the culling, volunteer marksmen licensed by the state station themselves in trees at least 20 feet above the ground and only take shots at a downward angle.

In the early 20th century, the state's deer population was small and scattered, a result of habitat loss and hunting. Deer were so scarce that sightings were often reported in the newspaper.

But they rebounded, in part because their natural predators – bobcats, wolves and mountain lions – disappeared. The suburbanization of New Jersey has also helped deer thrive.

Deer survive on tree shoots and berries in the woods. But in the suburbs, they can also dine on fruit trees in orchards, manicured lawns and ornamental shrubs in residential gardens. A deer in the wild might give birth to a pair of fawns, while suburban deer with a more robust food supply can have triplets.

More deer means a ravaged understory in nature preserves, experts say. That affects other species that nest, eat or hide in the understory – the grasses, bushes and smaller trees that grow beneath tall oaks and maples. With more sunlight reaching the forest floor, there are fewer salamanders than before. And because of the lack of cover, small mammals like voles and shrews are easy targets for raptors.

That loss of habitat reduces the diversity of animal species, experts say.

Since 1995, the white-tailed deer population has dropped by nearly 100,000 in areas where the state uses hunting as a management tool.

To address the growth of the deer population over the years, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife has lengthened the hunting season, increased bag limits and offered incentives for hunters to kill more deer. New Jersey now has some of the most liberal hunting laws in the country.

But those measures have little impact in the North Jersey suburbs, where hunting generally remains off-limits. In the 2016-17 season, 375 deer were bagged in Passaic County, 266 were killed in Essex County, and 134 were taken in Bergen County – a far cry from the nearly 7,500 that hunters killed in more rural Hunterdon County.

Logistics and the enchantment among some suburban residents with backyard deer make controlled hunts in North Jersey a hard sell. For instance, a deer hunt on Garret Mountain in 2010 was suspended by Passaic County freeholders after public criticism.

Some say that a holistic approach is needed, taking such steps as educating homeowners about plants that deer don't eat, like evergreens and bayberry, and planting them in suburban settings.

Sandy Reynolds of Montclair also attended Saturday’s protest. “I’m not saying deer should be running all over the place – that wouldn’t be good for anybody,” Reynolds said. But the culling operation used by Essex County “is just cruelty every year. How are we solving the problem this way if they keep having to do it every year?

“And you can’t even call this hunting,” she said. “They lure the deer with food. It’s just a slaughter. It’s just horrendous.”