By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
COLTS NECK – Members of the Township Committee and the Wildlife Committee are encouraging residents to work with their neighbors and hunters to manage the deer population in Colts Neck.
On Sept. 14, the Township Committee adopted an ordinance which states that hunting will now be permitted on parcels of 3 acres or larger which may be aggregated continuous acreage of more than one landowner.
In a message on Colts Neck’s website, officials said, “This is a step forward designed to reduce the deer population and result in fewer motor vehicle accidents, reduced incidents of Lyme disease, reduced loss to agriculture and (reduced) damage to property.”
The Wildlife Committee has worked with the governing body to establish a set of suggested procedures for residents to follow in order to monitor the deer population. The procedures are as follows:
• Talk with your neighbors about allowing hunting on your lot(s).
• When an aggregated continuous lot of 3 or more acres is secured, consider one property owner as the “lead” to disseminate all communications. Have the “lead” contact the Wildlife Committee at [email protected] to obtain list of suggested hunters.
• Make certain the abutting neighbors are fully aware of what property will be hunted as well as hunter(s) location. This communication will help when an animal needs to be retrieved outside of the applicable lot(s) without trespassing.
• Provide hunter photo and vehicle registration to neighbors so they are fully aware.
• Ask all hunters to carry out deer that have been killed and to dress the deer elsewhere.
• Ask hunters to report their activities to the Colts Neck Wildlife Committee and to the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.
• Report all deer related motor vehicle incidents to the Colts Neck Police Department (732-462-4343; 24-hour dispatch).
“The update is to inform the community of the ordinance change and provide an outline to property owner(s) on how they might proceed,” Wildlife Committee member Michael Viola said. “We do expect hunting activity to increase over time as the message spreads, leading to increased positive metrics and declining negative metrics.”
“I believe residents’ preconceived notions of what they think ‘hunting’ is vs. reality require dialogue and guidance to clear up,” Viola said. “Specifically, hunting does not mean hunters are roaming property with the weapon at the go. Both of these activities would be non-compliant with statute and code. Hunters will be elevated and stationary.”
Viola said property owners may place additional conditions on hunters.
“The agreement between property owners and their permitted hunters becomes the final check and balance to assure public safety,” he said.
The list of procedures and other related documents are accessible from the front page of the township website at http://www.colts-neck.nj.us/