Deer Hunt Goes Ahead After Years of Protest

The hunters gathered on Thursday at the glow of dawn on the icy slopes of South Mountain Reservation in Essex County. By sunrise, the thermometer had risen to 27 degrees and they were 30 feet up in tree stands, camouflaged and waiting.

Ranging in age from mid-30s to late 60s, the eight volunteer marksmen included a firefighter, two police officers, construction contractors and retirees. They would be rewarded, after eight half-day tours culling the overpopulated herd, with 40 pounds of venison apiece.

Thursday's hunt was the fifth of nine organized hunts over five weeks in a 2,047-acre park that was laid out by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, where county officials say that proliferating deer have endangered drivers and, as elsewhere in state parks, wounded the ecosystem. The unusual ring of gunfire in such a densely populated pocket of high-end suburbia is the first organized herd-culling in an Essex County park, and has spurred controversy among animal lovers and homeowners.