Deer Vs. Car Crashes Decrease 92 Percent In Basking Ridge Since 2001

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The chances of being hit by a deer while driving through Bernards Township has dropped 92.4 percent since 2001. The township's Deer Management Advisory Committee attributes this drop to its successful deer program.

The Deer Management Advisory Committee recently shared its Annual Report for Deer Season 2021-2022 at the last township committee meeting on Aug. 23.

The report revealed that 99 deer were killed during the 2021-22 hunting season and 259 during the 2020-21 hunting season in the township.

To conduct this annual harvest program the Township Committee authorizes two private hunting groups — Whitetail Solution (WS) and Bernards Township Protective Association (BTPA) — to hunt on 41 tracts owned by Bernards Township, and county officials did the same for three tracts owned by Somerset County.

WS uses archery only and BTPA uses both archery and firearms. The hunting group members are all certified (every two years) by licensed firearms and archery instructors/testers and the hunting program is supervised by a member of the Bernards Township Police Department.

From the deer harvested, 23 were donated from the 2021-22 season to the Lyons Veterans Administration Community Hope and other charitable organizations that service veterans at a unit butchering cost of $75.

Additionally, 14 deer were donated by hunters to other Veterans organizations. With an average venison yield estimated to be 30-35 pounds per deer, the contribution of venison by the Township was about 1,260 pounds, according to the Deer Management Committee.

Overall the committee reported that "road kills" on township roadways for the Deer Season Year 2021-22 was 22.

"This is 92.4% below the count of 289 for the base year 2001," said the committee.

"We believe our deer program continues to make progress in reducing the deer
population and the harmful impacts of deer," continued the committee.

Bernards Township's Deer program is one of only four successful programs in New Jersey. The committee will be presenting its program to the League of Municipalities in November.

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