06/10/2026
Yesterday Joe Basralian from Deer New Jersey, led an informative and thought-provoking webinar about deer herd stewardship, co-hosted by the WCPA and the Pennington Public Library.
Deer New Jersey, promotes community- and science-based management of New Jersey’s overabundant white-tailed deer population in order to reduce ecological damage, agricultural losses, public health risks, and other deer-related impacts on communities. Joe discussed why more holistic, effective deer herd stewardship is necessary; how we can accomplish this by working together and being respectful of diverse viewpoints; how New Jersey Conservation Foundation and diverse partners are helping to catalyze progress; and what we can do to produce success.
What was most interesting to learn is that humans are responsible for the increased deer population, which is 10 times what the local ecosystems evolved to accommodate. Suburban development creates optimal conditions for deer. Rather than people displacing deer--which is a common misconception--we are instead encouraging them through our development, creating year round buffets of nutrient rich planting and sunny edge habitats. Human creation of deer habitat is also far more impactful than an absence of natural predators.
In our park deer are facilitating the replacement of native plants--which they over-eat-- with invasive plants--which they tend to avoid. Deer directly decrease native flora populations, sometimes to extinction, which in turn decreases native wildlife populations, such as songbirds, which depend on native plants.
If current conditions continue, it is very likely that entire forests will disappear as deer eat all of the tree seedlings that would otherwise become the future generation of the forest. This is a problem that does not just affect ecosytems, but also has significant societal and climatic implications.
