EDISON — With more and more resident complaints about the growing population of deer in the township, officials are taking the initial steps to combat the growing issue.
“Our first step is to assess a count of where we are seeing a lot of deer,” said Jay Elliot, director of the Edison Department of Health and Human Services. “There is a calculation and standard of how many deer per square mile.”
Elliot said once a count is complete, then target areas will be highlighted and recommendations on how best to handle the problem will be made.
In April, Anthony DeNicola, of White Buffalo Inc., a Connecticut-based deer management company, made a presentation on various options before the Township Council.
Councilman Robert Diehl said none of the options were ideal or practical for the township.
“It’s how our town is built and built up where we have open space, houses, factories, strip malls and schools,” he said. “[Edison has] one of the most difficult environments to solve this problem.”
Councilman Michael Lombardi agreed with Diehl.
“None of the options were good,” he said.
Lombardi said the options included having archers from an archery recreational program come in certain times of the year and hunt for deer in an open park; hire professional hunters to shoot and kill the deer; tranquilize and kill the deer; and/or tranquilize and transport deer to a medical facility for sterilization.
“The issue with hiring professional hunters is we would need to get permission from every single resident and business within 400 yards of where the hunters would be,” he said.
Lombardi said the fourth option would cost the township $1,100 to $1,200 per deer to tranquilize and transport.
Diehl said the options of combating the deer population are challenging and are not going to be easy.