The Big Stretch

In Sandy Hook New Jersey the White-tail deer population is out of sync with the natural functions and values of the park. I couldn't find definitive statistics on total deer numbers, but if my time spent this past Saturday is any indication - it's up there. An approximate 6-mile-long peninsula encompassing 109 square miles, Sandy Hook is not insignificant as a coastal barrier island but with its unique maritime-forest-dune-bay and near shore habitats their impacts are measurable. Remember, an average white tail consumes 20-30 pounds of herbaceous-woody vegetation per day. Magnify this by a minimum of 100 deer (number taken from a 2020 Pete McCarthy, Gateway National Park manager statement) and the lightbulb should come on, hmmmmm that's 3,000 pounds of mainly native biomass stripped from the park each day. And that's if theirs 100 deer confined to this spit of land. I suspect the number is much larger. On Saturday I documented 43 deer on Atlantic Drive, a 3-mile loop road through the center of the park. My sightings were mainly the sides of the road - how many more were foraging in the interior and elsewhere in the park - I'm sure quite a few. I'm unaware of a park-sponsored deer management plan in the future but I would like to understand the Park Service's strategy to address the issue if I could. If anyone has knowledge in this arena, please don't hesitate to chime in.

The image here was taken December 26th along Atlantic Drive - young buck browsing Red Cedar on high.