Ordinance introduced to open muzzleloader and firearm buck seasons.
By: David Campbell
The Princeton Township Committee unanimously introduced an ordinance Monday night that would expand sports hunting by about 22 days to complement the township’s deer-management program.
The ordinance would permit hunters to kill deer during two seasons currently prohibited by township code the muzzleloader season, which usually occurs in November, December and January; and the six-day firearm buck season, which occurs in December and would permit additional shotgun hunting in the township.
The township code currently permits bow hunting throughout the deer-hunting season and special-permit shotgun hunting of deer for sport.
All sport hunting in the township occurs by permission on private property and is prohibited on public lands.
Township Attorney Edwin Schmierer said the two new seasons would expand sport hunting in the township by 20 to 22 days, and called the ordinance "a good adjunct to our deer-management program."
An ordinance similar to the one introduced Monday night appeared on the agenda of the Township Committee meeting of Nov. 12, at which the deer-management plan for this winter was approved, but was pulled prior to introduction.
Mr. Schmierer said Monday the ordinance was withdrawn because the township plan, which the state Fish and Game Council approved Nov. 13, did not include the additional hunting seasons.
The Fish and Game Council is a regulatory and permit-issuing branch of the Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Larry Herrighty, chief of the division’s Bureau of Wildlife Management, said in December the council asked the township to include the additional hunting seasons to give sport hunters an opportunity to help cull the township herd.
Mr. Herrighty indicated that some Fish and Game Council members considered making its approval of the plan conditional on the township approving the sport hunting ordinance, and said that next year the council could react negatively if the additional seasons were not finally approved.
Mr. Schmierer said neighboring municipalities like Montgomery, Hopewell Township and Hamilton have no prohibitions on firearm discharge.
"Within this region and probably within the state, we are probably the most strict," the township attorney said.
Tom Poole of the township’s wildlife committee said Monday night that sport hunters kill around 150 deer annually through bow and shotgun hunting with the current firearms restrictions in place.
The second year of the township’s deer cull by Hamden, Conn.-based wildlife-management firm White Buffalo ended Feb. 22 with 303 deer killed.
A three-judge appellate panel last month upheld the constitutionality of the state’s deer-management program and the law that enables it to be carried out.
But a lawsuit challenging Princeton’s cull is pending in the Appellate Division of state Superior Court.
A public hearing on the ordinance introduced Monday night is scheduled for April 22.