PRINCETON, NJ — Sharpshooters will return to Princeton this winter to thin the town's deer herd after the council approved a contract worth up to $120,000 with White Buffalo Inc. on Oct. 12.
The contract covers specialized deer removal and management services under Princeton's deer management program, which is reviewed each year by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife and the state Fish and Game Council, according to the resolution.
Princeton awarded the contract without public bidding as an "extraordinary unspecifiable service," which state law allows for specialized work. The resolution cites White Buffalo's years of experience with deer management in Princeton and nationally, along with its safety record.
Princeton has used sharpshooting and managed archery hunting to supplement recreational hunting from 2001 to 2010 and again since 2012, according to the contractor's proposal.
White Buffalo, a nonprofit wildlife research organization, proposed removing 175 deer during its 2027 operation, according to the proposal dated Sept. 8. That target depends on Princeton securing more private and public properties for clearing, along with drop-net sites in areas where hunters can't get approval to fire within 450 feet of a home.
Without that added access, the firm expects to remove about 120 deer at its current sites — enough, it said, to keep the population at about its present level.
The proposal calls for about 20 days of sharpshooting, starting in late January or early February. Deer are drawn to bait sites and shot from elevated positions, day or night. Drop nets and captive bolt guns may be used where firearms can't be discharged. The firm said carcass processing and transportation are not included in the 2027 budget.
A drone survey White Buffalo conducted in January counted 963 deer across Princeton's roughly 18.4 square miles, an estimated 52 deer per square mile, the proposal states.
It was the first townwide drone survey in Princeton. The firm said the higher count should not be read as population growth and likely reflects better detection from the air.
Last winter's operation removed 125 deer, including 42 adult females, according to the proposal. Through mid-August, 39 deer had been killed in collisions with vehicles and 18 had died on private property, the firm said.
Council President Michelle Pirone Lambros asked whether the culling would include the Riverside area, noting that the resolution lists Herrontown, Woodfield, Mountain Lakes and Smoyer.
Attorney Trishka Cecil said it "is the same list of properties that they've used previously for quite some time," adding that only public lands are listed in the resolution and that the work has not conflicted with public use of those properties.
Councilman Brian McDonald praised the town's animal control officer and the contractor.
"Our animal control officer, Jim Ferry, is outstanding, and he works extremely closely with the vendor in this case, which is one of the top firms that does this work in the country," he said.
"The state has an enormous number of rules and regulations pertaining to this work, we conform with them, and we supplement them with our own safety commitments."
He noted that some parts of town have no suitable sites for the work, and said residents in parts of Riverside and Littlebrook raise concerns every year.
"Many of the deer actually do not wander as far as people think," he said, adding that females in particular tend to stay in one area. "There can be clusters of significant numbers of deer, and there is really nothing we can do about that, given the state of the state's current rules and regulations."
Councilwoman Mia Sacks said Princeton has tried for years to pilot a birth control program for deer, but the state Division of Fish and Wildlife has kept it from moving forward.
Cecil said the state is working with the town, but "there are, however, just certain impediments ... or certain things that they continue to insist on that basically make it impossible to implement."
"There is tremendous interest in our community for us to move forward with a more humane approach,"Sacks said. "And it's really unfortunate that the state is so archaic, particularly the Division of Fish and Wildlife, who have continued to make it impossible year after year after year for Princeton to operate in a more humane way."
She said she would support the contract anyway.
"I'm voting for this not because I'm happy about it, but because I really appreciate all the work that our animal control officer has done," she said, adding, "fingers crossed for next year."
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