New Jersey's Deer Management Program

In the following document:
Goals
Deer Management Zones
Deer Seasons
Check Stations
Controlling Deer Populations
Community-Based Deer Management Program
1998-99 Deer Seasons Harvest Totals
1999-00 Deer Seasons

May, 1999

A healthy deer herd has great value to the people of the state. Deer are photographed, watched and hunted by many New Jerseyans. Deer hunters spend more than 100 million dollars each year as they enjoy in excess of 1.6 million recreation-days hunting deer. Money spent in the course of deer hunting benefits a wide variety of New Jersey businesses.

The authority and responsibility for managing the state's fish and wildlife resource has legally been given by legislative action to the New Jersey Fish and Game Council (Council) and the Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife (Division) [N.J.S.A. 23:2]. The Council is made up of eleven members -- six sportsmen representatives, three farmer representatives, one public representative and one person from the state's Endangered and Nongame Species Committee. The Council annually establishes seasons, bag or creel limits and methods for hunting and fishing in our state. These seasons and related rules are based on the scientific information provided by the technical staff of the Division.

The current goals of New Jersey's Deer Management Program are:

1. To maintain a healthy deer population on suitable habitat throughout the State.
2. To keep the deer population at a density tolerable to New Jersey residents.
3. To maximize the recreational and economic benefits derived from this renewable natural resource.

Deer are managed in New Jersey by deer management zone. Deer management zones are areas with similar herd characteristics, hunting pressure and deer habitat, and are bounded by highways, rivers and other easily identifiable landmarks. In 1998, there were sixty-seven different deer management zones of varying sizes throughout the state.

Hunters may pursue deer throughout New Jersey providing they have an archery or firearm license during the fall bow, the six-day firearm and the winter bow seasons. A permit bow, permit shotgun and permit muzzleloader season has been added in most deer management zones where an adequate number of antlerless deer were not being harvested in the regular deer seasons. A bow, shotgun or muzzleloader permit is needed, in addition to the hunting license by the hunter, to pursue deer during these permit seasons. The permit seasons allow the Division to more carefully regulate the harvest of antlerless deer by issuing more or less permits for each deer management zone, lengthening or shortening the permit season as necessary and increasing or decreasing the bag limit for each season on a zone by zone basis.

Successful deer hunters are required to bring their deer to a mandatory deer check station where information is gathered on the date and location of the kill, sex of the deer and number of antler points. On busy days of the deer hunting season (usually the opening day of the six-day firearm and permit shotgun seasons), Division employees staff the deer check stations and gather biological information, such as the age and weight of the deer and diameter of the antler. Supplemental and/or bonus tags are offered to deer hunters at the check station during most deer seasons. This supplemental tag program was initially initiated to encourage hunters to report the first deer taken. It now provides additional recreation time to successful hunters and provides the ability to harvest additional antlerless deer without detrimentally affecting the deer herd.

Controlling deer populations via the annual deer hunting seasons has been very successful throughout most of New Jersey. Managing deer numbers through annual adjustments to the deer hunting seasons is relatively easy in areas with good hunter access to the deer resource. However, factors such as development patterns, establishment of parks where hunting is prohibited, regulations that severely restrict or preclude hunting and landowner decisions not to allow hunting have resulted in population increases in some areas. The consequences of deer overabundance are well known and include excessive damage to crops, gardens and residential landscaping, and an increased incidence of deer/vehicle collisions. Excessive deer numbers can also adversely impact native vegetation and other species of wildlife. For example, forest regeneration can be inhibited or altered by excessive deer browsing and thus impact ground-nesting birds.

What can be done to resolve deer overabundance problems? Liberalizing hunting seasons alone are of little value if hunters are denied access to deer herds. Since the late 1960s the Division has been very successful in working with managers and administrators of large tracts of public land in development of controlled deer hunting programs. These cooperative programs have involved state and county parks, federal refuges, military bases, an airport, municipal watershed property and large tracts of private land. Expansion of cooperative deer hunting programs to other large tracts of land could resolve deer control problems in many additional areas if land administrators agree to participate with the Division.

Another more recent effort to assist local authorities in dealing with urban/suburban deer problems developed by the Division is called the Community-Based Deer Management Program (CBDMP). Under this evolving program, the Division cooperates with municipal, county, state and federal agencies to develop and implement alternative management strategies for use in urban/suburban environments where traditional or controlled hunting programs are either not a viable option or where hunting alone will not provide the desired level of reduction in deer numbers. For example, a CBDMP was successfully implemented at the Watchung Reservation, Union County, in 1995. In 1999, agents of the county killed 118 deer at Watchung Reservation. Most of the venison was donated to the New Jersey Food Bank. In addition to Watchung Reservation, special deer cull programs have been conducted this year at Baltisrol Golf Course, the Smoke Rise community in Morris County and Lewis Morris County Park. Under the CBDMP, an experimental immuno-contraception program is under way at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown.

The Division often works directly with farmers, foresters and other landowners to minimize deer damage. For example, the Division provides technical advice, limited amounts of fencing and repellents and permits to destroy deer damaging crops to farmers. The Division also funds research at Rutgers University on the use of chemical fertility materials for controlling problem deer populations.

During the 1998-99 deer seasons, a total of 60,014 deer were harvested by New Jersey hunters. A total of 12,581 were harvested during the fall bow season, 7,228 were harvested during the permit bow season, 10,921 during the six-day firearm season, 9,850 during the muzzleloader season, 18,268 during the permit shotgun season and 1,166 during the winter bow season. Of the total 60,014 deer harvested, 26,989 were antlered male deer and 33,025 were antlerless. The 1998-99 deer harvest by season and deer management zone is summarized below.

In recent years, the Council has implemented deer management program changes to provide better control of deer populations in zones characterized by poor hunter access, habitat loss, a high incidence of deer-auto collisions or deer damage to agricultural crops. Expansion of the shotgun permit season, increased bag limits, zone boundary modifications, issuance of bonus deer tags for harvesting antlerless deer, expansion of special areas programs (for example High Point State Park in 1997) and the "earn a buck program" in highly developed and agricultural regions have contributed to a steady increase in the antlerless deer harvest and achievement of deer harvest objectives in most deer management zones.

The 1999-00 deer seasons call for deer population reduction on 76% of the deer range in the state. Proposed amendments to the 1999-00 hunting regulations designed to further enhance efforts to reduce deer numbers to tolerable levels include: additional days of permit shotgun hunting; allowing for the harvest of two deer at a time during the permit shotgun season in some zones; expansion of the "earn-a-buck" program, whereby hunters are required to harvest an antlerless deer before harvesting an antlered male deer during the fall bow, permit bow, muzzleloader, permit shotgun and winter bow seasons; authorizing supplemental / bonus tags to be valid on the date of issuance throughout the state and limiting hunters to no more than one antlered male deer per permit per season throughout the state. New Jersey's six deer seasons will provide 116 potential hunting days between September 11, 1999 and January 30, 2000. Bag limits will vary from one deer per season to two deer per permit per depending on the season and zone. The 1999-00 deer harvest is expected to exceed 60,000 deer of which more than half will be antlerless deer.

Regulated hunting has been, and continues to be, the most efficient, economical and ecological means of deer population control throughout most of New Jersey. It's proven effectiveness helps to ensure that deer will remain a natural asset, not a liability, to all New Jersey citizens.