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.
