The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
By Bill Connell.
As a citizen member of the Open Space committee, it is truly interesting the breadth of topics with which we are presented and are asked to give an opinion on. My favorite was discussing salamanders. Their presence is an indicator of the health of water. I had not thought about salamanders since I was a feral child wandering Sealy’s Brook looking for them under rocks.
A more common topic is deer management. We have a Township-managed hunting program, and we also have automobiles that contribute to the statistics. Some years the cars do a better job than the hunters. The total ranges between 300-500 per year. These are soft numbers because not all automobile interactions are reported, and though requested with the permit, not all hunters report their contribution to the total. These numbers do not include hunting on private land.
What I am about to say next are my own thoughts. There is no discussion or action being taken by the Township. In fact, I may annoy a few people who will ask, do I have to say everything that crosses my mind? This is a myth. I hold back a lot.
I ride my bike a lot around sunrise in the 4th and 5th wards. This is prime deer time. The other morning in a half hour ride I saw no less than 30 deer. They are arrogant but my new bike is so quiet I can get right next to them and they still don’t move. The solitude of riding my bike and being on Open Space forces me to do a mental inventory of deer and it’s a lot. One morning I went to my porch to have coffee, and a deer is eating my Hostas. I had to ask her to get off my porch so I could sit down but let her finish chewing first.
The Township and Open Space are constantly reviewing deer management strategies and challenging their policies, everything from hiring professionals to contraception. Most are impractical. We have not made any changes since someone lost their life on South Middlebush Road a few years back and there was a push to review hunting.
Bow hunting in the 4th and 5th wards has never been discussed because of its housing density, but I have been dwelling on it. There are a few open spaces and parkland that could qualify. The question is, is it worth it? Will it lower the population of deer? Most importantly, will you get support from the residents?
Dealing with deer in high-density areas is not unique to Franklin, but I think it’s at least worth discussing. They have caused me thousands of dollars’ worth of damage, but I think it’s the arrogance and comfort they have around humans that’s bothering me. Does anyone else see this as a problem? Is it worth discussing, or should I start bringing apples on my bike rides try to make nice with them?
