To the editor:
First I have to show my appreciation to Mayor Glenn Jasionowski and members of the River Vale Council for their dedication, respect and patience shown to all attendees at our council meetings. Meeting after meeting, attendees from neighboring towns show up at our Council meetings expressing their views with fact and fiction to save the deer. They either do not understand the depth of the problem or simply do not care. The deer population doubles every year.
Our council members have suffered the experience of having to face unfavorable time consuming decisions, threats, and accusations regarding the lives of our deer population.
The big picture in River Vale and other towns is a devastating health problem due to Lyme disease. My concern is for the growing health problem for our infants, children, and the general public. How does an infant tell you they have symptoms of Lyme disease? The life-altering effects of Lyme disease are too devastating to mention here.
Thankfully, our council members did persevere and had a study performed about the deer situation in town. The study identified a total of 546 deer in River Vale with an average density of 96 deer per square mile.
The same report said “To best maintain the greatest benefits for ecosystem health and integrity and minimization of economic and social cost, it is therefore advisable that targets for deer management be set at approximately 10 deer per square mile.”
So, this is more for interests, but does directly affect the health problem of Lyme disease.
Considering the number of deer in River Vale, I would suggest the members of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey and deer lovers of surrounding towns start making plans for the removal of some 400 deer from town. A bow hunt for deer will not work since the token number of deer culled can easily be replaced by the remaining deer population. Other solutions must be considered.
“Sorry Mom, you can’t have grandchildren since your children had Lyme disease. Daughter can’t graduate for failing history because she couldn’t do her homework. Lyme disease hampered her ability to concentrate.”
Please, go online and see other sad cases of the affects of Lyme disease.
Meeting after meeting our council members get beat up by some 20 to 30 deer lovers from surrounding towns. I would like to see some of our River Vale neighbors attend our meetings to provide some support for Mayor Jasionowski and our council members.