10/13/2026
Hiking during Hunting Season 🥾🦌
Friendly reminder that deer hunting season is underway on FoHVOS preserves. Hunting occurs Tuesdays through Saturdays until February 20, 2027. Hiking is still allowed on preserves with trails during bow hunting, except Mount Rose. Be sure to check information posted at trailhead kiosks or our website for closure dates of specific preserves during fi***rm season.
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Why is there deer management on FoHVOS preserves?
Due to human influences, deer are 10-15x more abundant and have become one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in New Jersey.
Extreme browsing by deer has left our forests nearly empty of native tree saplings, shrubs, and wildflowers. This tips the balance towards unpalatable invasive plant species that deer don’t like to eat, allowing these species to form dense monocultures in our forests. With little to no native understory, food webs that support birds, insects, and even deer, are severely degraded.
Effective deer management is an integral part of land stewardship. FoHVOS and many of our partners have implemented deer management programs on private and public lands so that we can work towards restoring the health and biodiversity of our forests.
