Photo of the Day: Deer Seen From Highway, NJ

I took the photo accompanying this post from my bus window, on the way home from New York, off I-95 in Northern New Jersey. The frightening thing, though, is that in the last couple of years, the same photo could have been taken far closer to home—even right on my street.

Until recently, I had never seen deer so often and so close to where I live. It illustrates an ecosystem badly out of whack.

Deer, like the one in this photo with her young, are sweet, beautiful animals. But I fear for their safety—and ours—in such large numbers and in such close proximity. 

More traffic accidents involving deer are likely to occur (just this past week, in Bergen County, I saw deer carcasses just off the road on Routes 4 and 17), and, watching the plight of good friends of mine, I worry about the spread of Lyme disease in this area.

A few weeks ago, area officials were supposed to meet in my town, Englewood, to consider a regional approach to controlling the deer population, according to this article in The Northern Valley Press. This situation has been years in the making, and it’s a shame that it has taken this long just to hash out options for dealing with it. We area residents had better hope that a comprehensive, humane way can be developed to ensure this problem does not dramatically worsen.