To understand why we created this site you must first take a step back in time. Back to over 200 years ago. During colonial times, extensive tracts of forest dominated the Northeast. Early records indicate white-tailed deer were present in moderate numbers at the time - around 500,000.

At the end of the nineteenth century, there were almost no deer left in Pennsylvania. Due to excessive hunting and clear-cutting of land for timber, deer numbers had dwindled to an estimated 10,000 across the state. Deer were so scarce that sightings were often reported in local newspapers. (Hard to believe?!?) So the answer was to import deer from other states, habitat was modified to enhance deer viability, trap and transport was used to move deer from densely populated areas into low density areas, and vegetation was planted to feed deer. One of the major reasons to "re-populating" the deer herd was to fulfill the thirsts of recreational hunters. Within 25 years, deer numbers rebounded. Pennsylvania had become a virtual "Baby Factory" for deer. Today there is an estimated 1.4 million deer in Pennsylvania. Deer biology was not a component of these early efforts and so today we are left with a multitude of safety issues.

So this brings us to modern day East Goshen Township - a once rural area covered with extensive woods and small farms - now a bustling suburb about 20 miles west of Philadelphia, PA.

Suburban homeowners, unlike city dwellers, should expect to have contact with wildlife. What did you expect when you moved out to wooded areas like East Goshen Township? In a world where contact with wildlife is more frequent, we may need to change some of our own behavior to find ways to live with them. To coexist with deer we must understand the impacts they can have. This does not mean that the damage deer might cause has to be accepted, but only that it is inevitable that some may occur where deer and humans share the land. There are many non-lethal ways to keep damage to a minimum and our goal is to provide information on the best ways to make this happen.

Time and time again, we have learned that killing a few deer does not work nor resolve these issues as evidenced by failures in other communities. The remaining deer will still cross the roads and browse your gardens. Let us remember, they don't read boarder lines or stay in depleted feeding areas. Killing "local" deer in an active Chester County doesn't mean the count will remain low. Sorry but deer do move from one Township to another. So killing deer here doesn't mean we stopped the neighboring deer from moving in. If anything we just posted a "For Sale" sign and the deer will move in.

This website is designed by a group of private citizens who are frustrated with the lethal policy of our "politicians" and their desires for PRIVATE HUNTING GROUNDS on Public land nestled close to our homes where our children live and play. Instead of killing first and ask questions later we need to truly examine other non-lethal ways. Yes, there ARE other non-lethal ways to deal with this issue. (Detailed information about what these non-lethal methods are can be found on the Information page.) But the closed minded "politicians" dismiss them for no rational reason or forethought. For they had their mind set on a Private hunt from the onset and that’s that.

We guess they figure, why waste expensive gas and drive all the way up to the Poconos when you can just park around the corner.