Questions and oppositon to deer hunt

As the activists mobilize in opposition to the Garret Mountain deer hunt, it's time to correct some fallacies in their arguments. We're sure Marc Weiss of NJ Bow Hunters has encountered this type of opposition before, has remedies for all the problems. There is a lot of education needed to ensure those opposing the hunt know why this is desperately needed. Construction of Four Seasons is not a reason for overpopulation of deer on the mountain as some believe. Four Seasons was built in a rock quarry, not a forest or meadow on the mountain. That old quarry was there for decades. Deer do not eat rock. They did not feed in that quarry. Most of the nature-loving opposition to the deer hunt doesn't understand what the deer have done to other wildlife as well as the trees and plants that make up the forest on Garret Mountain. It seems the only nature these people love are what they perceive to be big, warm and fuzzy. Do they love the birds that can no longer nest and reproduce at Garret because the understory has been virtually eliminated? Do they love the trees and the shade and color they give the mountain? If they do, do they realize that as old trees die, new ones aren't there to grow because the deer have eaten all the saplings? Do they love all the other plants and wildlife that has been eliminated from a once healthy forest? Or maybe they love the fact that friends and family can contract Lyme and other tick-born diseases while visiting Garret Mountain, that these large herds of deer spread.
The deer problem on Garret Mountain as well as throughout NJ has been caused by governments taking years to address the problems the deer have caused, allowing herds to grow to numbers that their territory cannot sustain. Deer do not have any natural predators, like wolves and coyotes, on the mountain as they do elsewhere. 20+ years ago you had to look hard to find a white-tailed deer on the mountain, now some days you can see upwards of 100 alone in Rifle Camp Park. The deer have been fed illegally by people who thought they were helping. It's against a county park ordinance to interfere with or harm wildlife. These people need to know they contributed to dozens of fawns and sub-ordinate deer starving to death last year because the dominant deer ate at these "feeding stations".
We applaud the Freeholders of Passaic County for taking a stance and stand by their decision to save Garret Mountain. We have confidence the Passaic County Sheriff's Dept. will maintain the safety needed to get this done.
Read about some opposition in The Record's article Opposition to deer hunt mounts . Email any comments to garretbirds@aol.com