Essex County’s program to reduce the deer population in Verona’s Hilltop Reservation begins next Thursday, January 11 and will continue through February 22. There will also be a hunt in South Mountain Reservation from January 16 to February 13. All of the dates at both reservations have been added to MyVeronaNJ’s free calendar, which you can subscribe to here. There will be no hunt in Eagle Rock Reservation this year.
On hunt days, all reservation parking areas and walking paths will be closed to the public. Turtle Back Zoo, Codey Arena, the Essex County Park-N-Ride facility, McLoone’s Boathouse Restaurant and all county roads through the reservations will remain open. The Essex County Sheriff’s Office will coordinate safety patrols with local police departments.
Since the hunts were first held in 2008, a total of 3,057 deer (1,926 deer and 1,131 unborn deer) have been removed by experienced volunteer marksmen. The marksmen station themselves in trees at least 20 feet above the ground and only take shots at a downward angle. Carcasses are transported to a New Jersey Department of Health-approved butcher for processing, and the venison is donated to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey in Hillside, which distributes the meat to the needy and homeless. Since 2008, more than 54,180 pounds of venison have been donated to the FoodBank, which equates to about 200,000 meals.
“Controlling the population by removing deer from South Mountain and Hilltop has proven to be very successful in helping to preserve the forest habitat and maintain our reservations as viable resources for recreation and open space,” Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. said in a press release. “Each year, we have updated our program to address current conditions, adjusting the number and schedule of days and transitioning into a ‘maintenance mode’ to keep the population at a manageable level. This is just one facet of our comprehensive Deer Management Program that also includes creating seed banks to accelerate the re-growth of the forests and installing reflectors and lights to enhance traffic safety by keeping deer from entering the roadway.”
In addition to culling the deer herd, the county has also been replanting forests in South Mountain Reservation and Eagle Rock Reservation that have been damaged by the large deer population. It has installed 42 enclosures in South Mountain and five in Eagle Rock and planted native vegetative species so their seeds can be reintroduced into the area. The eight-foot-tall fences are designed to prevent deer and other large animals from foraging on the planted areas, but allow smaller animals, such as rodents and birds, to enter and exit. The fences will remain in place for about 25 years. The planting project was funded with grants made by the state’s Green Acres to the South Mountain Conservancy and the Eagle Rock Conservancy, as well as grants from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund.
Replanting native plant species is necessary to restore the forest understory that was being destroyed by the overbrowsing of deer. The loss of this vegetation has prevented new trees from growing, created erosion problems, allowed invasive plant species to flourish and caused the number of native animal species that rely on the plants for food or protection to decline.
When is Verona going to address the increased deer population in town. We have as many as 14 deer coming thru our lawn, and back yard 2-3 times a day. They are destroying our landscaping, and leaving a mess.