After reading the recent letters in the Examiner about deer hunting in county parks, I thought I could contribute some information regarding the deer population nearmy home inMillstone Township.
I have lived in central New Jersey for 52 years, the past 13 years on a small farm on Agress Road that is composed of open hay fields and wooded areas. Family that were farmers, hunters and fishermen brought me up in the outdoors. I live the same lifestyle.
Directly across the street is the new Perrineville Lake Park.Adjacent to and behind my land are a number of properties that have recently been preserved, all the way to the town of Roosevelt. I believe this will be called the Rocky Brook Park.
I know most of the land in both parks very well, as I enjoy spending much of my spare time outside in the woods and had permission to go on the privately owned land. The variety of wildlife is pretty amazing for central New Jersey, but one thing is very clear tome: the largest number of deer are not in the woodlands. They are in and around the developments.
When we moved to Millstone in 1995, most of the open fields in both parks were being farmed with crops such as soybean, corn and produce plants. One afternoon in February, I counted over 90 deer across Agress Road feeding on a local farmer’s crop that was not harvested because of extensive deer-feeding damage. My hayfield always had 15 to 20 deer grazing in the evenings. I used to regularly remove three to five road-killed deer along Agress Road and heard many nighttime collisions. Not now. There is very little farming of this type now in both park areas and the deer have looked elsewhere for food.
I believe that there aremore deer living in and around the housing developments that were carved into the wooded areas of the township.Withmany homes consisting of 3, 5, 10 or more acres of mostly wooded property, the deer feel very secure in the brushy areas that exist outside the lawn area that surrounds the house.My work as a horticulturist requires knowledge of deerresistant plant species used in landscape plantings. The whitetail deer can adapt to most any environmental condition as long as it has food, water and security cover. I have found that if conditions are harsh enough, a deer will eat almost any type of plant. The typical home in Millstone is landscaped with a smorgasbord of plants that deer relish and will browse on the lush turf grass lawn as well. Some homeowners feed the deer so they can see them more closely or think they are hungry. Whitetail deer have been born and matured in these settings and feel very safe and secure. They have acclimated to their environment very well. What’s to be afraid of, the household dog? There is a natural carrying capacity of the land, and it will be interesting to see how the deer population reacts.MotherNature can be cruel but effective if left alone, but there are no natural predators that would help stabilize the population. Unfortunately, diseasemay be the inevitable stabilizer, and this would not be nice to see.
I am not a wildlife biologist, but I do know the whitetail deer very well from firsthand observation and conversation with other outdoor participants. There is no obvious sign of damage fromoverfeeding in the park woodlands inmy part of town. The most obvious sign of damage would be a browse line from ground level to about 5 or 6 feet high. I have talked with a number of hunters exiting the park woods after hunting about their experience, and almost every person mentions that there are very few deer and many other hunters. As any hunter will tell you, if you overhunt an area, the deer will become nocturnal or move on. Guess where they are moving? Just for thought.
Scott A. McFie
University Horticulturist Rutgers, the State University
of New Jersey New Brunswick