Charges regarding length and cost of program are untrue and misinformed, township officials respond.
By: David Campbell
An animal-advocacy group opposing Princeton Township’s five-year deer-management plan claims the Township Committee misled the public about the duration of culling under the plan, which is expected to continue on a limited basis once goal density is reached this winter.
Township officials responded that the charge is untrue and misinformed.
The fourth year of culling, which was begun last week by wildlife-management firm White Buffalo, is expected to reduce the herd by 150 to 200 deer to the township’s goal density of about 20 to 22 deer per square mile a population of roughly 350 animals. This is one year ahead of schedule under a plan originally estimated to take five years.
But White Buffalo President Anthony DeNicola recently noted that in order to maintain the herd size, he will likely have to return on an annual basis to cull 75 to 100 additional deer.
Falk Engel of Mercer County Deer Alliance said the Township Committee has not been up front with residents about this, arguing that instead of the five-year deer-management program they were promised, taxpayers have been put on a "perpetual treadmill" of paying for indefinite culling.
Mr. DeNicola disagrees. He said that "from day one" of a program that began in 2001, it was clearly understood that once goal density was reached which was originally estimated to take about five years to achieve limited culling would still be needed in subsequent years to keep deer numbers from rising to former levels again.
Originally, Mr. DeNicola said, there was hope that maintenance could be handled by sports hunters, but he said the small number of deer killed to date by bow hunters on four parcels of township parkland suggests that hunters alone can’t do it.
"Unless we were doing a townwide fertility program, anybody with two bits of sense will realize that the deer population is going to grow again," Mr. DeNicola said. "That’s so basic, it’s fundamental."
Mr. Engel agreed that basic math is at the heart of the matter but in the form of annual contract fees paid out by the township to Mr. DeNicola for his services.
"Well, of course he wants to come back," Mr. Engel said. "Every time he’s come here. he’s made around $150,000, courtesy of Princeton Township taxpayers."
Deputy Mayor William Enslin said the Township Committee has always been up front with the public about what the deer-management program entailed. He said the committee plans to examine its options once goal density is reached.
"We’ve always said that after five years, some level of maintenance will have to be done," Deputy Mayor Enslin said. "Otherwise, we’re just throwing our money away. The herd will just come back."
W. Scott Ellis, chairman of the state Fish and Game Council, which approved the cull this year only after the committee agreed to open four parcels of public land to limited bow hunting, said unlimited culling by White Buffalo would be a concern. But, he said, he’s taking a wait-and-see attitude.
"Obviously we would rather see sport hunting keep the population in check, and not have to go through the White Buffalo group," Mr. Ellis said. "We’ll have to take it one year at a time from here on."
In a related matter, animal-welfare advocate Saving Our Resources Today filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to force the township to release the names and addresses of residents who have agreed to permit captive bolting on their properties.
SORT has been trying to gain access to the residents’ information for at least two years through the Open Public Records Act. The group, which is sympathetic to the Deer Alliance and its opposition to the cull, says it wants to explain to these residents directly why netting and bolting is unnecessary, an associate of the group said.
SORT attorney Bill Strazza was unavailable for comment Monday.
Since the cull began on Jan. 5, a total of 74 deer have been killed with sharpshooting and captive bolting. Inoculation of deer in an ongoing birth-control study in the southeastern corner of the township will not begin until an expected shipment of the one-shot vaccine SpayVac arrives, Mr. DeNicola said Monday.
Twenty does were vaccinated last winter three of which have since died. Mr. DeNicola has said he plans to vaccinate about 50 more deer in the coming weeks.
Work by White Buffalo in the township this winter is expected to last a total of five to six weeks. The herd was estimated at around 610 deer this fall prior to the current round of culling or about 48 deer per square mile.
In 2001, before culling began, the herd was estimated at around 1,600.