Story and photo by Laura Kolnoski
By mid-November, the New Jersey Chapter of Hunters Helping the Hungry, a nonprofit corporation, will take part in a controlled, precision adult deer hunt under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Fort Monmouth. It’s estimated well over 200 deer are roaming the 1,127-acre property, proliferating since thousands of military personnel and civilian employees left when the fort closed in 2005.
Following extensive work by the Monmouth County Department of Public Works and Engineering to prepare the fort’s Avenue of Memories to reopen to the public this fall, the state Department of Environmental Protection requested a Deer Management Plan be initiated. The road has been closed to the public since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service will supervise the hunt. All necessary permits and permissions will be obtained. The initiative will be in accordance with recommendations by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services policy. The approximate $40,000 cost of the deer hunt will be split by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) and the county. Only hunters with clearance are eligible to participate in the hunt.
According to FMERA officials, the deer will be immediately butchered and delivered to the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. It’s estimated that 40 pounds of venison per deer will be donated.
Estimates are that between 7,500 and 9,000 vehicles per day will use the Avenue of Memories, an extension of Route 537, once it reopens. According to FMERA documents, the deer culling program is directed primarily at reducing hazards to human health, safety risks, and property damage associated with the white-tailed deer population now contained within the fenced property.
“The NJDEP has expressed strong concerns that the opening of the Avenue of Memories to vehicular traffic poses a potential increase in deer/vehicle accidents along the Avenue of Memories thoroughfare, and in the surrounding areas, as well as other damage associated with the current deer population escaping into the surrounding municipalities,” a FMERA memorandum states.
Once reopened, the Avenue of Memories will be owned and maintained by Monmouth County after the final transfer of the fort from the U.S. Army is completed, most likely by the end of this year. County Engineer Joe Ettore, and Director of Public Works John Tobia, who attended the Oct. 14 meeting, said road work should be completed in about two weeks. The avenue connects Route 35 on the west to Oceanport Avenue on the east and is considered a critical artery vital to the integration of fort properties in Eatontown and Oceanport to the surrounding region. Motorists will soon be able to drive through Fort Monmouth rather than circumvent the property as they have done since September 2001. The vote approving the hunt was unanimous.
