Deer problems

Deer numbers in NJ are substantially than what is considered appropriate. What are the problems with so many deer?

• Disease Vector (ACSH)
• Lyme disease (NJ.com)
• A bigger threat to forests than climate change? (Nature Conservancy)
• Ecological impacts (TIEE)
• Hunger? (WIDNR) 
• No problem in NJ? (Medford Sun)
• No problem? (Thought Co)
• Poor management (PETA)

Deer NY Times...

Ronda Kaysen writes in the NY Times saying that "deer make the worst neighbors." ONe response included a more appreciative neighbor:

“They’re like these mystical creatures,” she said. “They’re like unicorns.”

But in the past the paper has suggested other responses including:
Counting 
Deer fences
Sterilization

The NY Times archives even includes a letter from Joyce Carol Oates about the deer hunt in Princeton.

Top 20 towns for deer-car conflicts

The Star-Ledger produced a list of the 20 NJ municipalities where deer get hit the most. Naturally, Somerset/Franklin made the list. Hillsborough leads the state with 316 "animal-loss claims" last year.

Local deer news

While gearing up for a fall studio focused on deer in Franklin Township, I have heard a few people dismiss the danger of car accidents involving deer. But the individual stories are compelling. Mark Rodgers' accident in Franklin was a fatal example of the dangers involved. A fatal accident in neighboring Montgomery Township got attention, too. They are a consistent problem, even down near the Shore. Sometimes the deer escapes and only the motorists are harmed.

And whenever a town tries to manage the local deer population, there is a voice of protest.
But the dissenting voices aren't always about whether this is humane.

NJ deer hunt harvest statistics

By different types of hunts.

A writing tip

Robert Caro says he always starts at the end of the book. He explained this to the New York Review of Books in a recent interview:

Before I start a book, I must know the last line. If I can’t, I can’t do the book. Once I have it, I’ll write toward that last line.
Do you have a closing line for the last volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson?
Yes. Yes.

Turn up the heat and see what you get

When we were kids we learned to write invisibly with lemon juice and then later we could reveal the secret message by holding it close to a flame. The heat revealed what had been previously hidden.

This summer's British heat wave is doing the same thing. The heat is revealing long lost patterns beneath the surface. Sam Knight digs a little deeper in this New Yorker piece on the visible archaeology. 

Richard Haag

Richard Haag, one of the great landscape architects (and educators) of the 20th Century has passed. Maybe you could guess he was a Kentucky boy when the Seattle Times quotes him saying:

 “A big peeve of mine is the harsh divorce of children from natural processes,” he says. “We’re beginning to see a revolt against paved schoolyards. Put in a bog instead! Kids want to play in the mud. Every child should have a chance to explore, dig, grow food, find refuge in nature.”

If you don't know his work, TCLF has an impressive memorial online.

Two of his best known works were Bloedel Reserve and Gas Works Park: