Plea to County: Continue Deer Culling in Reservations

The South Mountain and Hilltop Conservancies are mobilizing a petition drive for supporters of the Hilltop, South Mountain and Eagle Rock Reservations to counter a possible end to the County's deer management program. 

After several years of culling deer densities in our area have been reduced somewhat, but are nowhere near the 10-per-square-mile number needed to allow the forests and their ecosystems to regenerate. We believe that stopping the culling, even for a year, is extremely ill-advised. With no natural predators in our area (wolves, mountain lions, black bears), deer populations will continue to expand unless the County actively reduces the herds. 

We've set up an online petition for voting-age residents to tell Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo to continue the deer culling program—please click on the link below, read the material and sign the petition. You can add comments after you sign, and there is a box to check if you want your name and address kept private from other website visitors.

If multiple people in your household want to sign, just close your browser after you sign with your own e-mail address, and then have other signers open a new browser session and sign with their e-mail addresses. 

Please pass this note on to others who cherish our natural spaces, and want them preserved for future generations. We cannot let our forests die off for failure to speak out to those in charge! 

Tell Joe DiVincenzo to continue deer culling in Essex County Reservations.

Theresa Trapp, Treasurer
Hilltop Conservancy 

Dennis Percher, Chairman
South Mountain Conservancy