Ideas are described that would connect hunters and land owners, and hunters and venison consumers
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Landowners and hunters showed interest in learning more about a program that could put the two together as one way to reduce the white-tailed deer population in the Sourland Mountain region.
Hunters also heard about a system in the works that could guarantee a place to take their harvested deer to a local butcher, who would sell to a waiting list of venison customers.
Websites to put the two programs into action will be worked on and hope to be unveiled in the next few weeks, said Cliff Wilson, president of the non-profit Sourland Conservancy, which hosted about 80 people Nov. 21 at a symposium to educate residents and landowners about “responsible hunting.”
The conservancy is interested in reducing the size of the herd in the 90-square-mile area of the mountain that lies in parts of seven municipalities in Somerset, Hunterdon and Mercer counties.
Overpopulation of white-tailed deer is “the greatest single threat to the health of the Sourland forest,” says a press release from the Conservancy.
Michael Van Clef, an ecologist, said more than 40 percent of the total deer population would need to be harvested to reduce the number of deer.
To achieve that, hunters would have to focus on shooting females, he said. A significant number of hunters go for bucks, presumably to achieve rack of antlers.
Dr. Van Clef said the other hurdle is the fragmented nature of land ownership in the Sourlands. An estimated 70 percent of the land is in lots of varying shapes and sizes in private ownership, making it difficult to determine where hunting is allowed. Not all owners allow hunting, for various reasons.
Much of the 4,500-acre Somerset County Sourland Preserve is closed to hunting.
Even if public lands were managed to perfection, it would be difficult headway to the goal of herd reduction without hunting on private property, said Dr. VanClef.
The conservancy is organizing a website program called Hunter Connection to help landowners find “responsible” hunters for their Sourland-area properties.
Hunter Connection would even be able to make a map to show potential hunting areas, once safety zones around buildings are taken into account.
By a show of hands, about 20 to 30 hunters were interested in connecting with landowners. About 10 property owners said they’d be interested in hearing more about participation.
One man said, “As an individual, I really can’t find a place to hunt.” It said it was a “waste of time to knock on doors to ask permission.”
Caroline Katmann, executive director of the Sourland Conservancy, said one of the next steps would be to organize an outreach program to inform landowners about hunting rules and address concerns over safety and liability.
Jenn Rogers, who runs deer management programs as part of her job as a Mercer County Parks naturalist, described a “Venison Connection” program to give hunters a system to turn their deer into meat for someone who wants it.
Hunters would give their harvest to a participating butcher who has access to a computerized list of customers who would pay for the butchering into cuts of their choice. The system would allow hunters with full freezers or no use for the deer to continue to hunt. Only anterless deer would be accepted, since the program is intended to reduce the size of the overall deer herd.
”If I could go home and log on and get information about where I could go to a butcher and get venison for $75, I’d do it tomorrow,” said Jared Flesher of East Amwell. “I’ve heard it said venison is the most local grass-fed meat you can get.”
Also among the forum’s presenters were Carol Stanko, the deer research project leader, and a deer biologist, for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, and Cindy Kuenztner, a Department of Environmental Protection senior wildlife biologist.
The conservancy says on its website that the Sourland forest’s understory is being nibbled away by an overpopulation of white-tailed deer destroying saplings and seedlings, leaving no “next generation” as mature trees die. Invasive plants proliferate, creating permanent holes in the forest, the website says.
In much of the Sourlands, the deer population is more than 80 per square mile about 15 times the sustainable level, it says.
The conservancy would like these groups to urge their townships to accept the costs and responsibilities of organizing hunting in their parts of the 3,200-acre Sourland Preserve.
The conservancy is working on a Sourland deer management plan through funding of the Raritan-Piedmont Wildlife Habitat Partnership and the state Department of Environmental Protection. The deer management symposium was one of the education and outreach components of the deer management plan.
The Sourland Mountain lies in parts of Lambertville and East and West Amwell townships in Hunterdon County, Hillsborough and Montgomery in Somerset and Hopewell Borough and Township in Mercer.
The conservancy’s stated mission is to protect ecological integrity, historic resources and special character of the Sourland Mountain region.