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Let’s find balance
for our forests, farms,
and families.
Our state is out of balance.
In many parts of New Jersey, deer populations have grown far beyond what healthy land can sustain.
Let’s find balance for our forests, farms, and families.
The Problem
So What?
If forests are collapsing from the inside?
If birds, pollinators, and other wildlife are losing their homes?
If farmers lose crops they can’t afford to?
If the fear of Lyme disease keeps kids from playing outdoors?
If drivers grip the wheel a little tighter at night?
If deer themselves are suffering more than they need to?
This didn’t happen overnight.
And it won’t fix itself.
People created the conditions that allowed deer populations to grow to overabundance—fragmented landscapes, fewer natural predators, a steep decline in hunting, and a patchwork of decisions that never added up to a real solution all led to the problems we face today.
Who We Are
Deer New Jersey, (DNJ)
Is a statewide effort to restore balance across our forests, communities, farms, and wildlife. Organized by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, our coalition is building a future where New Jersey’s land, wildlife, and communities thrive in natural balance. All stewarded by the people who call this place home.
Our Mission
To achieve natural balance in New Jersey by leading a deer stewardship movement for the people, wildlife, and land we love.
Together,
The Deer New Jersey, Team
Our Guiding Principals
There’s bravery in stepping forward, and deeper bravery in doing it with compassion. Our actions reflect care for neighbors, for animals, and for the landscapes that become the setting of our lives.
People are good at creating problems; let’s prove we’re better at solving them. We refuse to accept crisis as normal. We take responsibility for trying to restore a better balance in our state, even when it’s hard.
People have the power to make real change. We believe transformation happens when we catalyze people to do their part: for deer, and for themselves, and for their communities.
Deer overabundance harms New Jerseyans in ways most don’t even realize. We don’t ask people to trust us, we show them: through visible data, restored landscapes, and safer communities.
Nature—and all the benefits we derive from it—give us a shared reason to act. We ground every choice in credible, independent science and hold ourselves accountable to ecological truth, not convenience or politics.
Nature 
and all the benefits we derive from it 
give us a shared reason to act.
What We’re Doing to Achieve Balance
Make the Invisible Visible
Make the Invisible Visible
We bring the full impact of deer overabundance into the light.
Through research, data, and real stories from across New Jersey, we help people understand what’s happening and why it matters. Because when people can clearly see the problem, they’re far more likely to act on it.
Turn Awareness Into Action
Turn Awareness Into Action
We give people practical, ethical ways to make a difference.
From municipalities and landowners to hunters and everyday residents, we help each group understand their role, and take meaningful steps that move us toward balance. Everyone feels the consequences. Everyone has the power to do something about it.
Build Unlikely Partnerships
Build Unlikely Partnerships
We bring together people who don’t usually sit at the same table.
This issue touches everyone, and solving it requires collaboration across perspectives. We work to align communities, conservation groups, hunters, farmers, policymakers, animal advocates and more around a common goal: a healthier New Jersey for all.
Create Lasting Change
Create Lasting Change
We work to make balance the new normal.
That means working with wildlife professionals to improve policies, expanding effective programs, and building long-term systems that sustain progress over time. We’re not chasing a temporary fix. Instead, we’re helping build a future where stewardship is part of how New Jersey works.
A Better New Jersey Is Possible
It’s not unrealistic, but it will take all of us working together.
Forests growing back strong, meaning healthier habitats for diverse plants and animals.
Kids playing outside with less risk of ticks.
Healthier deer herds with more abundant food and reduced risk of disease.
Stay Updated
Stay Close to the Mission
This is just the beginning. Join us to share your insights, receive updates,
and learn how to get involved as this work grows across New Jersey.