LAWRENCE: County to close Pole Farm park for deer hunting

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Pedestrians and bicyclists who are planning to use the Pole Farm, which is the portion of Mercer Meadows that is located in Lawrence Township, will find their access to the county park is limited for the next six weeks while hunters seek out deer.
   The Mercer County Park Commission’s deer management program will take place between Jan. 1 and Feb. 16. The goal is to thin out the deer herd, in order to encourage the growth of young trees to fill in the gap when older trees die or fall to the forest floor. The deer eat the young plants.
   The Pole Farm is bordered by Blackwell Road, Cold Soil Road, Keefe Road, Federal City Road and the Lawrenceville-Pennington Road. It was formerly known as Mercer County Park Northwest, and is now known as Mercer Meadows.
   Township resident Tony Singleton brought the deer hunt to Township Council’s attention at its Dec. 4 meeting. He said that while he did not oppose deer management, he was concerned about the potential conflict between hunters and park users.
   ”I think it is a material issue, a safety issue,” Mr. Singleton said, adding that he feared a pedestrian or bicyclist might be accidentally injured or killed.
   Responding to Mr. Singleton’s concerns, Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun told Township Council at its Dec. 18 meeting that he and Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny met with Kevin Bannon, executive director of the Mercer County Park Commission, to discuss the issue.
   Mr. Krawczun told the council that 17 hunters have been chosen by the Mercer County Park Commission to participate in the deer management program. All of the hunters are licensed and trained. Only “traditional” bows will be used — not cross-bows or firearms, he said.
   ”The (neighbors) have been notified by letter (of the deer hunt),” he said. “I think we have Mr. Bannon’s cooperation. He recognizes there are a lot of important issues and wants to make the process as safe as possible.”
   Mercer County Park rangers will be stationed at access points to the Pole Farm to ensure that it is closed to the public on the selected days, Mr. Krawczun said. Signs will be posted at the park entrances to let visitors know when it will be closed.
   The park will be closed to the public on Jan. 1, 2, 5 and 7-9. It also will be closed Jan. 14-16, 19, 21-23 and 28-30. It will be closed Feb. 2, 4-6, 11-13, and 16. Those days are Monday through Wednesday, and alternate Saturdays.
   Hunters must use elevated tree stands, which will be placed 50 feet away from the Lawrence Hopewell Trail and the Twin Pines Trail that meander through the Pole Farm. Hunters are not permitted to hunt from the ground. The elevated deer stand ensures that the trajectory of the arrows — in a downward direction — does not pose a danger.
   The deer management program was initiated in response to a forest health study that was conducted at the park three years ago, according to Mercer County officials. Tree seedlings were planted throughout the park and then measured for deer browse, or how much was eaten by the deer. The density and composition of the understory, or shrub layer, also was measured.
   The study concluded that the deer browse at the Pole Farm was severe enough to prevent any native shrubs or trees from generating in any open forest gaps. This means that trees in this forest were not being replaced when they died or fell to the forest floor, Mercer County officials said.
   The pressure from high-intensity deer browse and the current invasive plant infestation negatively affects forest regeneration. The plant community in every habitat is the supporting foundation for all of the other organisms that inhabit it, Mercer County officials said.
   Insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals all rely on the native plant structure for food and shelter. Once native plants begin to disappear, other wildlife will also begin to disappear.