Plea to County: Continue Deer Culling in Reservations
The letter writers represent Hilltop and South Mountain reservations in Essex County.
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The South Mountain and Hilltop Conservancies are mobilizing a petition drive for supporters of the Hilltop, South Mountain and Eagle Rock Reservations to counter a possible end to the County's deer management program.
After several years of culling deer densities in our area have been reduced somewhat, but are nowhere near the 10-per-square-mile number needed to allow the forests and their ecosystems to regenerate. We believe that stopping the culling, even for a year, is extremely ill-advised. With no natural predators in our area (wolves, mountain lions, black bears), deer populations will continue to expand unless the County actively reduces the herds.
We've set up an online petition for voting-age residents to tell Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo to continue the deer culling program—please click on the link below, read the material and sign the petition. You can add comments after you sign, and there is a box to check if you want your name and address kept private from other website visitors.
If multiple people in your household want to sign, just close your browser after you sign with your own e-mail address, and then have other signers open a new browser session and sign with their e-mail addresses.
Please pass this note on to others who cherish our natural spaces, and want them preserved for future generations. We cannot let our forests die off for failure to speak out to those in charge!
Tell Joe DiVincenzo to continue deer culling in Essex County Reservations.
Theresa Trapp, Treasurer
Hilltop Conservancy
Dennis Percher, Chairman
South Mountain Conservancy
Concerned citizen
9:09 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Stop killing the deer!!!
Concerned citizen
9:09 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Stop this inhumane nonsense!!!
x
9:18 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Deer killers! You should be ashamed of yourself.
Kean09
9:46 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Let me get this right.. You rather see them in the road suffering because they were hit by a car? People sick because of the ticks they carry? Your property destroyed because they are so many and they are hungry?
Concerned citizen
10:17 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
no that is incorrect. I would like them to take seriously the options that are available for birth control. It is one thing to bring down the population but once you have, I would like to see birth control methods used instead of continuing with allowing a hunting period.
Kean09
10:43 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Birth control? How would that be done? And the cost?
James Lawson
8:20 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
The most affordable happens to be salt licks that have a large amount of birth control in them the only problems with these licks is that they also affect other animals that lick them. Some animals it works like it does with the deer, but it can be detrimental to other animals
John Loconsolo
11:22 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The deer have no natural predator in the area to control their population, that is why we need to control their population by whatever means necessary. My property is traversed by deer on a regular basis. My dog has been bit by ticks on multiple occasions and now I have a 11 month old that I have to worry about. Not to mention the landscaping that they ruin that we have had planted to improve our property since we purchased it after years of neglect by previous owners. The anti-deer spray works only to a point. The deer are not pets. they are pests and should be treated as such.
Kean09
11:33 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
They are food to some .. This hunt is to thin the heard.. Since the beginning of time Man has hunted it's food.. It needs to stay that way..
Kean09
2:20 pm on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
John I beg to differ.. The deer do have a Predator It's the Car.. Not only do they suffer and sometimes need to be shot, they cost the Insurance companies and the Policy owner money.. I am all for the controled hunt..
MusicalMe
10:53 am on Thursday, September 13, 2012
The meat was sent to the FoodBank as well and helped feed hungry people. It's a good thing.
susan
5:41 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
I think that deer culling is inhumane-- who exactly are shooting these poor animals??? Are they TRAINED marksmen who do not leave wounded and bleeding deer dying and in pain from these maniacs. Why cannot they be shot with a form of birth control instead of bullets? We should all be ashamed. They were here before us and we were the ones that provided no safe haven for them. They were once free before we began building on every inch of Essex County. Now it's more important to build more and more offices and homes and deplete our county of natural foilage for the deer to eat. Shooters be aware -- this is not a "sport" to kill an animal. It is a tragedy.