Representatives of the Sourland Conservancy testified today in favor of a bill to allow farmers more leeway in controlling deer and reducing deer damage to their crops. Sourland Mountain is a 17 miles long ridge in Central New Jersey, extending from the Delaware River at Lambertville to the western end of Hillsborough Township near the community of Neshanic, through Montgomery Township and into Hopewell Township in Mercer County.
Laurie Cleveland, the Sourland Conservancy's executive director, and Cliff Wilson, a member of the organization’s Public Policy and Advocacy Committee, testified before the Agriculture and Food Security Committee of the New Jersey Assembly, in support of bill A4182. While the focus of the bill is preventing loss of crops, the conservancy sees synergy with its mission to halt and reverse deforestation that is being caused by the overpopulation of white-tailed deer.
“In our view, any reasonable action that might make a dent in the deer population is worthwhile,” Wilson said in his testimony.
“The Sourland Forest is dying,” Cleveland testified. “It has been decades since the forest has been able to regenerate at anything close to a sustainable level. The main reason is a vast overpopulation of white-tailed deer, which feed on the seedlings and saplings in the understory.”
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