PASCACK VALLEY—Local mayors and other public officials turned their attention to a topic close to home: the Pascack Valley’s growing white-tailed deer population — and what to do about it.
At the Sept. 16 Emerson Council meeting, NJDEP Senior Biologist Brian Schumm said that if all 10 towns in the Pascack Valley Mayors Association coordinated on a lethal deer culling program — using bow hunters shooting from tree stands — residents would see “immediate relief” from deer–vehicle collisions and other impacts.
The greater Pascack Valley includes Emerson, Hillsdale, Montvale, Old Tappan, Oradell, Park Ridge, River Vale, Washington Township, Westwood, and Woodcliff Lake.
“You’d expect to see immediate relief on deer numbers and accidents,” Schumm told Emerson Mayor Danielle DiPaola and council members. He made similar presentations Sept. 15 to Old Tappan’s Council and recently to a Bergen County mayors’ group.
So far, there’s no consensus to move forward. Neither Emerson nor Old Tappan took action after Schumm’s talks. Both mayors described them as part of ongoing information-gathering efforts.
DiPaola expressed interest in a drone survey, something Montvale and Hillsdale have also discussed. Officials said surveys are most effective in early spring, when trees are bare and deer are easier to spot.
Schumm said he is available for consultations and stressed that “a regional approach” offers the best chance of sustained reductions.
He noted that New Jersey white-tailed deer generally stay within one-tenth of a square mile, populations can rise 30% annually, and severe winters can cut numbers by as much as 40%.
“Deer-vehicle collisions are the #1 way we’re managing the deer population in Bergen County,” Schumm said. He dismissed chemical and surgical sterilization as too costly and ineffective. Contraceptives require capturing does in consecutive years and cost $1,000 to $4,000 per deer; bucks can also detect infertile does and avoid them.
Other measures — fencing, signage, contraception — can have “unintended consequences” without reducing herds, Schumm added.
Beyond collisions, deer also host ticks that spread Lyme Disease, damage native plants, and degrade forest habitats. He urged residents not to feed deer, calling those who do “bad neighbors” because feeding worsens conflicts and habituates deer to humans.
Old Tappan’s deer forum
Old Tappan’s Sept. 15 meeting drew a packed room, including Hillsdale Mayor Michael Sheinfield and mayors Ray Arroyo of Westwood and Michael Ghassali of Montvale.
Sheinfield noted Schumm’s emphasis on hunting, joking that deer’s only predator “has four wheels and an engine.” Coyotes may take smaller deer, Schumm said, but not in numbers to matter — and wildlife officials don’t expect their population to grow.
“There is not an easy solution to this issue,” Sheinfield said. “Nobody wants to be the one to kill ‘Bambi,’ and neither do I.”
He said all the mayors remain in the “information-gathering stage,” evaluating options to reduce conflicts: collisions, Lyme Disease, and landscape destruction. Gallagher, Ghassali, and Arroyo requested copies of Schumm’s presentation, and Schumm urged them to work together on regional solutions.