Articles Open space and environment
Deer in Montgomery: How the Township's Hunt Works and What the 2025 Count Found
Since 2001 Montgomery has opened township parks and open space to permitted hunters to cull deer. A 2025 drone survey counted 3,017 deer, about 93 per square mile, against 69 in a 2021 count made a different way. In the fall of 2026 a Committee member reported concerns about a growing herd and ticks, and a resident asked the Board of Health to press for fewer deer. This explains how the program works, what the record shows, what is still unknown, and how residents can take part.
What is happening
Montgomery has run a deer management program on township land for 25 years. Each year the Township Committee names the parks and open spaces where permitted hunters may cull white-tailed deer. The 2026-27 season opened on September 12, 2026 and runs to February 20, 2027.
In the fall of 2026 the program drew new attention. On September 3 a Committee member reported concerns about a growing deer population and deer ticks. On October 14 the Board of Health discussed a resident’s email asking it to urge the Committee to reduce the herd. The Board did not vote. The next evening its Committee liaison reported the discussion to the Township Committee.
No new deer survey has been proposed, funded or scheduled in public. The most recent count, from 2025, found about 93 deer per square mile. This article explains how the program works and what the public record shows. The issue page is Deer management.
How the program started
According to the township, deer found “an ideal habitat” in the 1980s and 1990s as Montgomery changed from farms and forest to homes, with “an abundant food source (your landscaping).” Its program page says: “Montgomery’s Deer Management Program began in 2001, after a Township-wide infrared survey was conducted and found the deer population to be approximately 88 deer per square mile (10 deer per square mile is considered sustainable).” At an August 2025 presentation, the chair of the township’s Wildlife Committee said that 2001 count was flown “from an airplane” (uncorrected captions). See the 2001 entry.
The Wildlife Committee itself is older. It was “formed in 1992 as the Hunting Committee,” according to the same presentation.
How the program works
The legal basis. Chapter IX (“Parks and Recreation”), Section 9-9 of the township code “authorizes the Township Committee to designate annually by resolution which parks and open spaces will be made available for hunting.” That wording comes from Resolution #26-4-141. The Committee amended Section 9-9 twice in recent years, each time 5-0 with no public comment:
- Ordinance #23-1698 (April 20, 2023) amended the permit requirements and rules.
- Ordinance #24-1726 (May 2, 2024) tied a hunter’s right to keep a property to “minimum harvest requirements as set forth in the annual resolution.” It also set up three drawings and youth permits, with no more than two per property.
Who runs it. The Wildlife Committee is an ad hoc committee appointed by the Mayor. It has liaisons from the Township Committee, the Open Space Committee, the Agricultural Advisory Committee and the police. It recommends changes to the Township Committee, tracks harvest reports and hunter surveys, and reviews new open space for hunting. The staff lead is the Open Space and Stewardship Director. The Township Committee votes on every change.
Who may hunt. Permit holders must be at least 18, carry at least $1 million in general liability insurance and hold a current New Jersey hunting license. They pass a police background check and attend an annual safety training with NJDEP Fish and Wildlife, township staff and police. Applications for 2026-27 ran from June 8 to June 30, 2026, first come, first served. Hunters who met the minimum harvest on the same main property the year before get priority.
The rules in the field. Hunting on township tracts follows the state’s dates and bag limits for the “High Regulation Set.” Sundays are prohibited. Hunters use elevated tree stands with a full-body harness and must check in with police before each session. State safety zones apply: 150 feet from a habitable structure for bows and 450 feet for firearms. Montgomery lies in state deer management zones 12 and 14. The township says there have been no accidents in the program’s history; the August 2025 minutes record “zero incidents/accidents to date.”
The 2026-27 season. Resolution #26-4-141, adopted 5-0 on April 16, 2026, lists 15 “main” properties and a set of “provisional” tracts. For each it gives the block and lot, deer zone, acreage, permits and whether firearms are allowed or bows only. The township’s map page shows about 40 named tracts. The dates:
| Season | Dates |
|---|---|
| Fall bow | September 12 – October 30, 2026 |
| Permit bow | October 31 – December 24 and December 26–31, 2026 |
| Six-day firearm | December 7–12, 2026 |
| Permit shotgun and muzzleloader | Listed dates in the resolution |
| Winter bow | January 1 – February 20, 2027 |
Owners within 500 feet of a designated property get individual notice. See the April 16 entry.
Keeping a property. A hunter who meets the minimum harvest is “grandfathered” on the same property the next season. For 2024-25 the minimum was one antlerless and one antlered deer. On August 21, 2025, Resolution #25-8-267 returned it to “two (2) or more antlerless deer.” It passed 4-0, with Committee Member Taylor Todd absent. Resolution #26-4-141 keeps two antlerless deer for 2026-27.
The venison. The township provides a freezer and pays for butchering of deer that hunters cannot use. The meat goes to Hunters Helping the Hungry and a food bank in Union County. State grants help: Resolution #25-8-269 (August 21, 2025, 4-0) added a $7,650 NJDEP “Deer Management Grant” to the budget, and on November 13, 2025 Resolution #25-11-364 authorized the agreement, FG26-006, for the “venison donation program,” with no local match.
Private land. The township program covers only township land. The township’s season page says “private property owners may independently allow hunting on their land any day of the week.”
The three counts
| Year | Method, as described | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Township-wide infrared survey | about 88 deer per square mile |
| 2021 | ”Thermal survey” | 69 deer per square mile |
| February 14 – March 2, 2025 | Thermal-camera drones, Raritan Valley Community College | 3,017 deer, about 93 per square mile |
The 2025 survey. The 2024 NJDEP Community-Based Deer Management grant gave the township “$5,000 to offset butchering costs and $14,874 to fund a new population density survey” (Environmental Commission minutes, February 4, 2025). Drones flew at night over the whole township. The college “completed the Drone Density Survey March 2.” On March 6, 2025 the Mayor told residents who had seen drones overhead that they were “being used to conduct a deer population study.” See the survey entry.
The result. The survey was scheduled to go to the Township Committee on July 17, 2025. It was presented on August 21, 2025. The minutes record it as “conducted by Raritan Valley Community College’s Center for Environmental Studies in February-March 2025 with the use of drones indicating 3017 deer across the Township or 93 deer per square mile.” See the August 21 entry.
The caveat. On video the Wildlife Committee chair said: “we’ve had three surveys from three vendors with three different scientific methods of doing these surveys.” The new figure, he said, was “way out of where we thought we were,” and the committee had hoped it would “stay pretty steady around that 69 deer.” The presenters said the college used “a very rigorous method” and “they feel very confident in their number.” The chair said the committee would apply for the grant again, “so at least we get to compare apples to apples” (uncorrected captions).
The township’s drone-survey page and its March 2025 news notice describe the survey but publish no numbers and no report. The August 21, 2025 minutes are the only official written record of the result found.
The harvest
| Season | Deer taken on township land | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 (ended February 15, 2025) | 236 (188 antlerless, 48 antlered), 82 donated | Environmental Commission minutes, May 6, 2025 |
| 2025-26 | 204 | Environmental Commission minutes, April 7, 2026 |
For 2024-25 the minutes add: “The municipal program has 54.6% of the total Township-wide harvest on 8.01% of the land.” The rest, about 45%, came from private, county or state land, according to a question-and-answer exchange at the August 2025 presentation. The same minutes say: “We can continue to improve our deer harvest numbers if more private landowners hunt their land or open their properties to hunters.”
For 2025-26 the April 2026 minutes say: “Season total was 204, which is less than previous years.” Staff attributed it to extreme cold and six weeks of snow cover.
At the August 2025 presentation the chair said: “Over the last ten years we’ve taken 2180 deer,” about 217 a year (uncorrected captions). He also said land in the program had grown about 60% in five years. The presenters said the 82 donated deer were about 6.4% of the statewide Hunters Helping the Hungry total of 1,291.
What the township says the program is for
The program page gives three reasons: public health, public safety and the forest.
- Ticks. Deer “serve as hosts to deer ticks,” which carry Lyme disease and other illnesses. The page says that from 2010 to 2020 the state averaged “about 3500 cases of Lyme Disease per year, with Montgomery averaging about 40 cases per year.” At the August 2025 presentation staff cited “over 580 cases of Lyme disease in Montgomery since 2010.” Showing a chart of Lyme cases since 2012, the presenters said “there could be a correlation … but we don’t exactly know” (uncorrected captions).
- Roads. The page says that over the past 15 years “there has been an average of 105 automobile collisions per year in the Township that involve deer,” counting only reported crashes. It adds: “As the Township has added properties to the hunting program, we have seen a reduction in reported car accidents in the past few years.” In August 2025 the presenters said 2024 state crash data were incomplete.
- Forests. The page calls about 10 deer per square mile “sustainable,” meaning “trees in the forest can regenerate at a rate greater than or equal to the rate trees are lost to disease or damage.” It says deer eat saplings and prefer native plants.
These figures are the township’s. The underlying crash counts and the year-by-year Lyme data have not been posted.
The 2026 record
April 16. The Committee set the 2026-27 tracts and dates (Resolution #26-4-141, 5-0: Martin, Ahn, Taylor Todd, Deputy Mayor Barragan and Mayor Singh).
September 3. Two things happened (the September 3 entry):
- The minutes record that Committee Member Martin, liaison to the Wildlife Management Committee, “shared that there have been concerns raised about an increasing deer population in the Township and health implications from deer ticks.” The concerns “and possibility of a deer study in 2027 are being looked into.” On video he said: “we’re hearing, at least anecdotally, some reports of, of an increasing deer population. But really that hasn’t been verified through any kind of study.” And: “we don’t have funding grant funding this year like we have in previous years to conduct a, a deer population study … that may have to wait until next year” (uncorrected captions).
- Resolution #26-9-240 passed 5-0 (Herring, Martin, Ahn, Deputy Mayor Taylor Todd, Mayor Singh). It added a twelfth permit on the “Opatut” property, made provisional property P11 “Stage II” bow only, and added provisional property P24 “Dutchtown,” with one permit and bows only. The resolution says the township acquired the land on July 25, 2026; the Clerk said it was a donation. Asked whether more land could be added, the Administrator said the Open Space and Wildlife committees review what can be added each year.
October 1. The minutes record Martin reporting that “deer hunting season is in effect from September through February.”
October 14, Board of Health. The agenda lists one item of correspondence: “An email was sent in by a resident regarding deer population concerns.” The Board took it up at the start of the meeting (video). According to the uncorrected captions:
- The request was for the Board “to pass a resolution urging Township Committee to take action to decrease the deer population.”
- Members asked for data on tick-borne illness and deer collisions. Staff said tick-borne diseases are “the largest segment of … all of our communicable diseases,” and top the list of requests for education (5:05). Asked whether others had made the same request, a speaker said “they’re not asking for a reduction in the deer population”; they ask how to protect themselves.
- A member asked whether the 2025 drone-survey numbers were available.
- One participant said culling, contraception and baited tick-treatment stations are costly and must be repeated, and that “prevention is what you need to do.”
- Others suggested looking at what Princeton does now, asking the Committee for the drone data, and asking how development affects where deer go.
- The Board did not vote (“we’re not going to vote”). Members suggested replying to the resident with tick-prevention information. The points were left with the liaison, Committee Member Douglas Herring.
Later in the meeting the department’s 2025 annual report showed Lyme disease as the largest share of its communicable disease chart, which excludes flu and COVID. The department hands out tick kits. See the meeting summary.
October 15, Township Committee. Herring reported that the Board of Health “had correspondence from residents expressing concern about Montgomery’s deer population impact on public health,” and that “the board of health was going to urge that the town look into additional ways to reduce the deer population” (video, 25:11, uncorrected captions). The Board’s agenda lists a single resident’s email, and its discussion ended without a vote. The Committee did not vote on deer that night. See the meeting summary and the October 14 entry.
What is not known
- Whether the herd is growing. Martin said reports of an increase are anecdotal and unverified. The Wildlife Committee chair said the three counts used different vendors and methods, and that the committee wanted to repeat the college’s survey to “compare apples to apples.” Whether the rise from 69 to 93 per square mile reflects more deer or a different method is an open question.
- Whether a 2027 survey will happen. No study has been proposed, priced or funded in public. The record does not show whether the township applied for a 2026 state grant, or with what result.
- The college’s written report. Environmental Commission minutes say it was emailed to members by August 2025. It has not been posted, so the method, coverage and margin of error are not public.
- The data behind the charts. The August 2025 slide deck, the 2021 and 2001 survey reports, the harvest reports by season and property, and the police crash counts by year are not posted.
- The donation share. The presenters put 2024-25 donations at about 6.4% of the statewide total. The program page says “approximately 10%.” The source of the difference is not explained.
- Health data. The Board of Health’s 2025 annual report and its monthly communicable disease reports are not posted, so local tick-borne case counts by year are not public.
- The Board of Health’s minutes. The October 14 minutes had not been posted as of October 23.
- Other land. Whether any county park land in Montgomery, such as the Sourland Mountain Preserve, is hunted under a county program could not be confirmed.
- What the Committee will do. As of its October 15 meeting, no change to the program had been proposed in public.
What residents can do
- Comment in public. The Township Committee generally meets at 7 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays and takes public comment at each regular meeting. Remaining 2026 dates are November 12, December 3 and December 17. The Board of Health’s calendar lists November 11, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. (Veterans Day) and a joint meeting on December 9. Check the live calendar, since dates move.
- Know where hunting happens. Tract maps are on the township’s Maps of Municipal Tracts page, and the season dates are on Deer Hunting Season 2026-27. Owners within 500 feet of a tract are notified each year.
- Private landowners who want deer taken on their own land can allow hunting there. The Environmental Commission has said more private land would raise the harvest.
- Hunters can apply for a permit when the next application window opens. The 2026-27 window ran from June 8 to June 30, 2026. The requirements are on the hunter information page.
- Request records from the Township Clerk under the Open Public Records Act:
- the Raritan Valley Community College report on the 2025 drone survey;
- the August 21, 2025 presentation slides;
- the 2021 and 2001 survey reports;
- harvest reports by season and property, including the final 2025-26 total;
- police deer-collision counts by year;
- any 2026 application for an NJDEP Community-Based Deer Management grant;
- the resident’s October 14 email to the Board of Health, with personal details removed.
- Ask the Board of Health for its 2025 annual report and its monthly communicable disease reports, which show tick-borne illness locally.
- Follow the issue on the Deer management page, which carries the timeline entries and meeting summaries cited here.