Herald & Lantern 11 January '34 outdoors with Lou Rodia

sports

Too Many Animals For Food Supply

27

If you have been following the newspaper ac-' counts of the deer problem in the Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County in Pennsylvania, you will probably have a little bit of insight into -what New Jersey is heading for as we become more and more populated and more and more land is posted against hunting. Hie Ridley Creek State Park problem developed when 3,000 acres oi land was dedicated as a state park and hunting was eliminated. It worked fine, for a while. ’Iten, the few deer in the park began to multiply. Totally protected, and with little if anything to bother them, the numbers grew. For a while, food was plentiful and the deer stayed pretty weO within the confines of the park. However, as nature has a tendency to do, the herd multiplied to the point where there are about five times as many deer in the park as the food supply will accommodate. Vegetation is literally being stripped from the park. Foliage has been denuded in many areas to about bead-high, which is as high as the deer can reach. THE FREQUENCY of deer and auto collisions has increased by leaps and bounds and the property

Avalon Revises Rec List

AVALON - There have been changes in activities, rules and events due to the extensive improvements made in community hall, Dave Haberle, borough recreation director, noted. Because of the new floor, the recreation committee has requested that those taking part in activities at the hall wear white-soled sneakers, so as not to mar the finish. Roller skating will no longer take place at the hall, but will be scheduled elsewhere. Line dancing has been scheduled Thursdays from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and volleyball oh Wednesdays from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. The schedule is as follows:

S - lOSiimaaatfcs; • - UTMSfaap; 1 - 3 Square Dane* 3:30-S:» Ballet Leaeeoa; 7 - > Fra* Activity - Grate Nine • 12^4 ■ 10:30 Adult

TMaday

10 - 3 Open Gym; 3 - < Gems Batetfaall; 7-• Free Activity - up to

Eighth Grade; • • >:30 Free A Grate Nine -11; »:10 -

* Activity 0:30 Adult

3-lOShmnasticf; 8-11 Tot Shop. U • 3 Bovtiog League - Wildwood; 3 7 Gem* Basketball; 7 - 3:30 Square ' Dance Lessons; 7:30 - 10:30

10-1 Open Gym; 1 - Laaaans; S-tOanaBai • 8 Free Activity tfaragh Eighth Grade; 8 - 3:30 Free Activity Grade U; 8:38 - 18:88 Adult FHfay . l; 8-11 Tot Shop; 8 aB; 7 - 8 Free Activity up to FmA Grade; 8 - 8 Free Actmty Grate Five Eighth; I » Free Activity Grate Nbe -11.

> Hall

• 3 Free Activity able; 1 - 3 Rc" " 11 aad 38; Dee. 10.

damage and injury problems have compounded themselves to where many of the residents in the areas around the park began to complain. So did the people who found their back yard vegetable gardens being raided by deer and who found their hedges, ornamental bushes and other plants and small trees being eaten by the deer. Ihe Pennsylvania Game Commission decided to bold a special deer hunt to remove some of the deer from the park and the battle was joined. The antihunters came out in force and did battle with the commission. The issue was finally resolved in court and a controlled deer hunt was implemented. In the first two days, 174 deer were harvested from a herd estimated at nearly 1,000. That’s far from the number needed to get the herd in balance with the available food supply. In answer to concerns about safety, the commission laid down strict safety rules. No rifles were permitted and shotguns and buckshot were the only legal weapons. A safety zone was set up so that there would be no firing of weapons within 150 yards of a building — more than the safety margin really needed for buckshot. In the first two days of the hunt there were no safety violations. Despite dire predictions as to the well-being of the people in the area there were no personal injuries. There was an orderly protest, the anti-bunt people had their say and the hunters performed aeditably in their hunting ethics and contacts with the resident population. While mere deer mist be harvested or removed from the park, it is hoped that before the hunt ends part erf the population problem will be resolved. IT MAY BE difficult for some of you to undo-stand why the deer must be kill-

ed. .Some say that they should be moved to other areas. That shifts the problem to the area where the deer are moved. Eventually one runs out of places to put them where there would not be a problem. Transporting them, in addition to being extremely costly, is like dumping trash'in the river to float downstream. Once around the bend it becomes a problem for someone else. It was also suggested that teams of professional hunters be hired to selectively shoot a number of the deer. I suppose this suggestion was justified because the “professionals" would kill with no emotion and would not get a chance to enjoy the hunting. Another suggestion was to just let the deer eat themselves out of house and home. At some point, enough would starve so that the problem would exist no longer. That suggestion had to come from someone who has never seen a deer starve. The process takes months. What has to be addressed here is the issue of what to do with wild game when it proliferates beyond the ability of an area to support it. Should it just starve, or should wild game be harvested like any other crop?, Man has made the problems for nature by radically altering the landscape to the point where there are no more natural predators in places like Ridley Creek State Park. Wolves, bears and wild cats long ago left areas of this type. Man then has to become the predator and hunting is the most logical means of keeping a deer population under control. Even the anti-hunters agree that something has to be done. IF NOTHING is done, man then becomes the next in the animal chain to be jeopardized. That’s not a far-fetched idea if one looks

CG Award Presented

CAPEMAYMachinery Technician Third Class (MK3) Jon Durham of U.S. Coast Guard Station Indian River, DE. and Rehoboth, DE., was awarded the Coast Guard Group Cape May semi-annual Achievement Award Dec. 30 for his excellent work and dedication to duty. The award was presented by Capt. Lance A. Eagan, group commander of Coast Guard Group Cape May at an awards ceremony at Station Indian Riv®. The Group Cape May sAmi-iinmial Achievement Award is presented to the coast guardsman who excels in his duties in fulfilling the Coast Guards’ various missions. Durham is an engineer and crew member aboard the patrol boats at Station Indian River. Durham was specifically cited fa- his personal efforts and long hours exerted recently dur-

ing an overhaul of the unit’s 44-Toot patrol boat. Marine

Dealers

To Meet SOMERS POINT - New Jersey Marine Dealers will meet with a New Jersey Bell representative Jan. 16 at Mac's Restaurant at 8 p.m. Members are invited to meet informally at 6:30 for dinner. The meeting will feature New Jersey Bell’s “We Can iielp’^ presentation, and will provide an opportunity for members to ask any questions they may have about billing, equipment, services etc. Prospective members and guests are welcome. The New Jersey Marine Dealers Association is composed of marine dealers and related businesses in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties. It is a chapter of the state-wide Marine ‘Trades Association of New Jersey.

at the record. In Ipswich, Blass, a problem similar to the Ridley Creek State Park one has surfaced. A deer herd expanded rapidly and spiltai ova- into areas where humans had to contend with auto ‘accidents, denuded vegetable patches and shrubbery and an abundance of deer roaming around town. A hunt was proposed. It was opposed, and finally allowed as a control mechanism. But, not before human well-being was really threatened. Deer in the Ipswich, Mass area were infested with deer ticks, which are about as big as the bead of a pin and do attach to humans. Some did. Deer ticks carry Lyme disease, which is a disorder not unlike arthritis when it affects human beings. It can cause long term brain daipage and heart disorders in people. So far, eight cases of Lyme Disease have been reported in and around Ipswich, Mass. Despite this, there are some in that Massachusetts town who argue against reducing the deer population. So far no Lyme disease has. been reported in the Ridley Creek Park Area, but it can happen. Another disease which is a problem when there is an overabundance of animals is rabies. Where I live, that area -is totally developed and the trees have become

the home for large numbers of squirrel*, lam concerned that what has happened elsewhere can happen around me. SQUIRREL populations, when tb^- run away with themseKes^ develop rabies'. They bite each other and some die. That’s nature's control. But, in the process the rabid squirrels get sick and come out of the trees where they live. Since -they are ill they become easy prey for house cats and pk dogs. The pets get bit. TTiere are reported cases of rabies in domestic pets where this situation exists. Hopefully, it won’t happen near me. But again, it might. Man, be he anti or pro hunting, must come to grips with the fact that we cannot continue to' stockpile nature without recognizing the consequences. The anti-trapping sentiment has to be

tempered with the thought that if there is no control on the foxes, skunks, muskrats aqj other harvestable furbearing animals, they too will proliferate beyond the habitat’s ability to bold them and welre off and running again with another set of problems. We hope the experiment in Ridley Creek State Park works well for allcoocerned because it is At too far down the road when we in Cape May County and throughout New Jersey will be looking for solutions to problems similar to those faced in our neighboring state. All you have to do is look at the amount of land being converted to bousing which was ooce pristine forest and prime deer habitat to know we’re on a collision course with disaster of one kind or another in the animalmankind relationship.

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