Letters to the Editor, Aug. 27

Deer-control methods are doomed to failure
To the editor:

Over the past 20 years, Princeton Township has used bowhunters, then shotgun hunters, then White Buffalo’s high-powered rifles and metal bolt guns to reduce the deer population and human-deer conflicts. All methods have failed. Now, the deer committee is recommending admitting sport hunters again and counting on car-deer collisions to kill deer (The Packet, August 17).
   We thought that Princeton Township’s problem was the high number of car-deer accidents and that reducing the deer population was the intended cure. Now township officials have reversed the problem and the cure: They regard the deer population as a problem in itself, and car-deer collisions as part of the cure. This is a strange form of backward thinking.
   Princeton’s deer have maintained a high population level even after 1,200 of them were killed over the past four years. The reason is simple. Huge amounts of forest-edge vegetation, provided by humans living in low-density housing developments, supply the food that can sustain large deer populations. When a significant number of deer are killed and the food supply remains the same, the surviving deer will have little competition for the food. There will be more fawn survival, more does pregnant and does mating younger than before. In-migration from outside populations increases as well.
   This is why the program of killing by professionals (White Buffalo) will be a perpetual drain of money just to keep the township’s deer population at its present level. Ending this program lets the population rise to its 1999 level, which officials have called intolerable.
   The Division of Fish and Wildlife is dependent upon hunting license revenues for salaries and benefits; so it must see an opportunity here. We can expect a joint township-division push for sharply reduced restrictions on sport hunting within Princeton Township.
   Hunters in our back yards and parks, shooting bullets and razor-sharp arrows, will create a serious risk of hunting accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1,000 people are injured in hunting accidents each year.
   With luck, however, only a few dogs will get shot, and damage to humans will only be minor property destruction. But hikers, joggers, bird watchers and dog walkers will no longer feel safe in Princeton’s parks and preserves. The Township Committee’s response to these adverse effects will probably be to simply keep quiet about its plans until after the municipal election this fall, as they did on their plans for netting and bolting three years ago.
   I would hope that instead of living with the continued risk, we will learn to co-exist with wildlife and implement nonlethal methods to avoid landscape damage, car accidents and other conflicts between humans and deer.
   An integrated approach requiring targeted landscaping, management of parklands for biodiversity and roadside wildlife warning reflectors, where and when necessary, is the only socially acceptable, long-term solution to co-existing with deer.
Nancy T. Bowman
Director, Mercer County Deer Alliance
Oak Creek Road
East Windsor
Governor should take the high road
To the editor:

The following is an open letter to Gov. James McGreevey:

At first, your resignation announcement seemed thoughtful and statesmanlike. However, as people wonder if there is more behind the action, the reasons to step down become more pervasive.
   1) You, your situation and the State of New Jersey are the butt of many less-than-kind jokes nationwide that continue to embarrass everyone.
   2) Having bared your soul as unfit to govern, how can you ethically or morally continue to occupy the office of governor?
   3) Your New York Times commentary is a weak and embarrassing attempt to justify your continuation.
   4) It matters not whether a Democrat or Republican succeeds you. It critically matters that the citizens of the state not you, personally, now as a shame duck select their next governor.
   5) Finally, you have a chance to leave a more positive legacy by rising above party politics and promptly removing yourself at this time of disarray.
   For you, your family and friends, take the high road, governor. Step down immediately and let everyone start to heal.
Herbert W. Hobler
Ballantine Lane
Montgomery