By Helen Pettigrew
The Princeton Packet
Friday, July 27, 2001

   MONTGOMERY — More land will be available to township deer hunters this fall, the Township Wildlife Management Commission hopes.
   The commission, formerly called the Hunting Committee, fleshed out plans for an expanded township deer hunt at a meeting Tuesday, which was also attended by representatives of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.
   By the conclusion of the meeting, the committee had come up with the beginnings of a community-based management program to increase the deer harvest through hunting. It plans to open up plots of open space for hunting, along with public parks in January and February for just bow and arrow hunting. Also, the commission plans to ask private landowners to allow hunting on their lands.
   The commission would like to see township residents get first priority to hunt on the open-space and private lands.
   "One of the problems that Montgomery and surrounding towns have is that there's no space to hunt," Commission Chairman Frank Drift said Wednesday.
   Additionally, Mr. Drift said, hunters usually only take the meat they can use, which hasn't helped to thin out the deer population.
   "People will only take what they can eat," Mr. Drift said. "You don't catch up that way."
   According to Mr. Drift, the commission hopes the township will purchase a large refrigeration unit that would be kept near the Municipal Building to store the deer carcasses, and will seek state funding to butcher and prepare the meat for donation to charity.
   Township counsel Trishka Waterbury plans to draw up an ordinance outlining regulations for the expanded hunt.
   The ordinance is expected to state:
*Permits for the township-owned lands will be issued by the Police Department.
*One hunter for every 10 to 15 acres will be allowed.
*Hunters will be required to have a current hunting license and hunter's insurance and must participate in a township safety course.
*Any hunters with Fish and Wildlife violations within the past 10 years will not be allowed to participate.
   It also will likely describe exactly which open-space lands are to be opened for hunting.
   Mr. Drift said he hopes the ordinance will be approved by the Township Committee this fall.
   Additionally, Ms. Waterbury, at the request of the commission, will investigate state funding for the processing of the deer and allowing hunting clubs to bid on plots of land for hunting.
   Wildlife Commission member Gary Milchanoski, who suggested renting land to hunting clubs, said the township could rent parcels of land for as much as $10,000, and hunters would have insurance through their club.
   According to Susan Martka, principal wildlife biologist of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, some municipalities have enacted a bidding process, whereby hunting clubs can bid on a lease rate for plots of land, and then the municipality would award the lease to the highest bidder.
   Commission members say they recognize that the hunt is not all fun and games.
   David Roskos said the effort is going to take a lot of work.
   "It's a job really," he said. "I mean, people make it sound like it's going to be great fun for these permitees, but it's a community service, really."
   Mr. Drift said he is worried about the lack of forest undergrowth due to the overpopulation of deer along with the health of the herd and Lyme disease. "We're not here just to slaughter deer," he said. "It's a health issue and it's a safety issue, and that's what we have to focus on."
   Ms. Martka said 891 deer were killed during the six seasons of hunting last year. The Township Environmental Commission has said it would like to take about 1,500 deer this year in order to reduce the size of the herd to 20 deer per square mile. A census this spring revealed that the township has about 90 deer per square mile — almost 3,000 deer overall.
   Ms. Martka informed the commission Tuesday of several different types of management programs, their price and feasibility. These included trap-and- transfer methods, birth-control study areas and extended hunting seasons.
   Don Cole, conservation officer for the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, said the division has volunteers that would teach safety courses at no cost to the township.
   The commission considered extending the hunting season, but decided Tuesday not to do so because the division had already extended the hunting season about a month into February, according to Mr. Drift.
   At the end of the meeting, Ms. Martka said, "You guys are really working in the right direction ... Take your time, do it right, and once it's set up you have it for several years."

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