If you live in Hopewell Valley, you have often seen deer. While deer are beautiful creatures to observe, their overabundance has a very detrimental ecological impact to which there is no simple solution.

Deer naturally thrive in the Garden State of New Jersey, where they can heartily feed on our delicious plants, flowers, and forest understory. Other than humans, they have very few predators. Our Valley has 105 deer per square mile. This is over ten times the recommended 10 per square for herd balance.

The Problem

Deer Vehicle Collisions account for tens of thousands of accidents in New Jersey annual. The risk is highest during mating season which runs from late October to mid-December.

Lyme disease – Infected ticks use deer as their host. A dense population of deer contributes overall to more cases of Lyme disease.

Agricultural losses – According to surveys done by Rutgers, NJ growers reported 70% of their crop losses from wildlife were due to deer.

Landscape planting losses – Planting deer resistant landscape is a huge challenge as the deer change their eating patterns.

Ecological degradation – The layer of trees that grows beneath the forest canopy but above the forest floor is called “understory.” For a forest to be healthy, it needs a healthy understory. Unfortunately, without fencing to keep deer away, it is almost impossible to grow new trees in our forests. Native shrubs, small trees and wildflowers have declined by nearly 80%. In the past, native plants accounted for > 95% of all plant cover and now the balance has shifted to invasive species making up > 50% of plant cover.  With the increase in deer over the last 50 years, native plants have declined and invasive plants have increased.

No easy solution

We’ve made perfect habitat for deer with forest edges, farm fields and homes that protects deer from hunters and feeds them a diet much more copious and nutritious than a native forest.

Further, hunting has not been tremendously effective. 40% of Hopewell Valley lacks hunting access. When hunting does occur, it is often “trophy hunting” rather than “management hunting.” Trophy hunters kill mature male deer, or bucks (with large antlers) which does not help population control and some studies indicate it may actually result in increased populations. Management hunting requires time and money to be very productive.

There are deer management groups run by Mercer County and FoHVOS but more needs to be done.

What You can do

In order to increase awareness of the complicated issue of deer overabundance for all stakeholders, Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) created visual representations of the various priorities, obstacles, and decision involved. Stakeholders include Landowners (public and private), agricultural community, Government, Car Insurance Industry, Animal Welfare Advocates, Hunters and members of the public. We categorized behaviors by their impact on deer overpopulation. Each either relieves or sustains deer overabundance. Too see the impact of each visit fohvos.org.

In the meantime, if you are a private landowner, consider what you can do:

Native plant gardening – Garden to protect native plants to replace those eaten by deer. According to Audubon.org,“Because native plants are adapted to local environmental conditions, they require far less water, saving time, money, and perhaps the most valuable natural resource, water. In addition to providing vital habitat for birds, many other species of wildlife benefits as well.”

Education – Learn about deer impacts and management of deer overabundance. Research management hunting options for your property. Contact FoHVOS to check for safety zones and receive contact information of safe and effective hunters.

Advocacy – Work with your local municipality to support local and statewide deer management efforts.

Support organizations, such as FoHVOS that engage in deer management, and programs that encourage venison donation efforts, like the New Jersey based Hunters Helping the Hungry (HHH) that have provided over 2,000,000 meals by subsidizing hunters to donate venison to local food banks.

All of us have created the deer overpopulation problem in how we live and utilize the land. It is our hope that all stakeholders will do their share.

An excerpt of this article appears in August’s Hopewell Valley Neighbors magazine.