By David Campbell
The Princeton Packet
Friday, July 27, 2001

  There has been a noticeable decrease in the number of deer killed by vehicles on Princeton Township roads since sharpshooters trimmed the herd nearly five months ago, according to records from the township's animal-control officer.
   However, other variables, including a slight increase in the number of deer-car accidents reported to police, indicate it is too soon to assess the early results of the township's five-year deer-management plan.
   "In the long run, it will definitely have an effect," Mr. Johnson said of the township's five-year plan. "But there are still a lot of deer where sharpshooting can't take place. This is where I'm having roadkill now. Where the culling has occurred, there has been a reduction."
   Between Feb. 17 and March 3, sharpshooters from the Hamden, Conn. wildlife-management firm White Buffalo killed 322 deer from a herd that had been estimated at 1,600.
   According to Mr. Johnson, who keeps annual records of deer roadkills, there were 55 deer killed by motor vehicles from March through June as compared to 69 during the same period last year. In February of this year, when the culling began, there were 15 roadkills as compared to 23 in February 2000. And this month, to date, there have been 16 roadkills as compared to 25 in all of July last year.
   "I've seen drops of adult deer getting hit, but there have been a lot more fawns getting hit," he said of roadkills following the sharpshooting.
   Mr. Johnson said the numbers tend to vary according to season, with more collisions with adult deer during the fall mating season, and collisions with fawns increasing in the spring.
   Because of this, he said, it is difficult to draw conclusions from roadkill numbers about the effectiveness of culling efforts, he said.
   Mr. Johnson said he has seen the most significant reductions in areas where sharpshooting occurred, such as in the vicinity of Mountain Lakes, near the Institute Woods and stretches of Rosedale Road, and in the vicinity of Mercer Street, Quaker Road and Herrontown Road.
   He acknowledged that portions of The Great Road are "still hot," as is Stuart Road, due to a resident who persists in feeding deer, which draws the animals to the roadside.
   According to Township Police Department records, there were more accidents reported to police in the months following the sharpshooting than there were in the same months last year. Twenty-two were reported this March through June, compared to 17 during the same period last year.
   Chief Anthony Gaylord said the number of reports may have increased due to the publicity surrounding the township deer-culling efforts. And, like Mr. Johnson, he said there are so many variables at play in deer migratory patterns, that it is difficult to draw conclusions based solely on the numbers.
   Tony DiNicola, founder of White Buffalo, pointed out that the numbers being examined are part of only the first round of a five-year program.
   "You can't expect to go in and skim the surface and expect dramatic returns," he said. "It's just an issue of sheer numbers and the scope of the program. You would have to kill well over 500 deer to really see a distinct drop in vehicle-deer accidents."
   Township Committeewoman Roslyn Denard agreed.
   "This was only the first step, and we have to keep working at it," she said, adding that it is probably too soon to be assessing results.
   Deputy Mayor Steven Frakt said, "I'd like to take a long-range perspective and say that in the long run this will make a significant difference."
   Charles Bowman of the Mercer County Deer Alliance said a proposed moratorium on shooting to allow an unbiased study of nonlethal alternatives by the Princeton Deer Management Options Task Force, which the Township Committee opted against, should be reconsidered.
   "A small decrease in the pickup of roadkill is completely disproportionate to the number of slaughters that have occurred and the tremendous amount of expense," he said.

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