Deer Still Need Management in Lloyd Harbor, Mayor Says

For each of the last four or five months in Lloyd Harbor, there has been at least one report of a vehicle accident involving a deer.

That's according to Police Chief Charles Flynn in his report to the Board of Trustees at its Tuesday, February 22 meeting.

Mayor Leland Hairr said that as a result of this ongoing safety hazard, he has asked the village's Deer Management Advisory Council to reconvene after a period of time of not meeting and many past and new members showed up.

"It was successful. The minutes were sent for me to review and for other trustees, so there is no misunderstandings and we can better control our deer population program," he said. The council had, in previous years, presented a deer-management plan that the board adopted.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has some different ideas regarding the method used. Since 2003, the state has sent a marksman to assist with the culling, but said he isn't sure he agrees with the number that the DEC says were taken this year. "I've got to get it in writing," he said. "The DEC said the number was 46 but our marksman said we took out 39."

 In any case, rather than allowing the marksman to take more deer, the state wants to open up the area to bow and arrow hunting.   "I adamantly tried to tell them that this was not going to work in our village. We've had many discussions with them about this and many differences of opinion regarding the appropriateness of that," he said.

Mayor Hairr said that the DEC agreed to allow bucks to be culled as well as does, but he does not feel that concession will be sufficient enough to eliminate the problem.

"I told him that we don't just need to maintain. We need to double the culling," he said. "We are averaging 40 to 50 removed annually and the population is still growing dramatically with more and more accidents and the risk that it is going to get further and further out of control."

Mayor Hairr said that, after some discussion, the DEC did agree to extend deer culling season "through the winter," with permits expiring March 31. The season usually runs from October 1 through December 31.

In addition, the DEC agreed to adjust the so-called "nuisance permits" to allow the village to have feeding locations that would presumably "channel the [deer] to allow them to be captured."

The mayor said that he or the DEC would also reach out to Michelle Williams, refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Target Rock, to determine if deer culling would be allowed on a federal nature wildlife preserve.

"In December, I did walk the trails at Target Rock and saw a number of deer there," he said.

He said that one reason the DEC would not allow bucks to be taken out this year because a facility where the deer were processed into venison to be donated to homeless shelters was facing some legal issues. "They have shut down the processing facility in Oakdale after an investigation, I believe, as to whether processing facility was selling antlers or bucks on the side. They were violating some rules by the DEC and there was an investigation." But, he said,  that there is another available processor in Farmingdale that can be used.

Mayor Hairr, who has been mayor since 1999, has faced many obstacles in controlling the deer population in Lloyd Harbor.

In 2006, members of the radical Animal Defense League's Long Island chapter  launched several demonstrations against the deer-control program, with some protests taking place at the mayor's home. In 2005, activists spray-painted his house and car with their logo. He and the other trustees received abusive and threatening phone calls as did the village staff. This resulted in "substantial time over and above normal duty hours for surveillance, protection and a collaborative investigation with the FBI, Special Agents in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to a 'Quality of Life' web site set up by the mayor and trustees Jean Thatcher and Hilary Rolih during the 2009 campaign for re-election.

In an article in The New York Times, the mayor said that he did not make his decision without thought and had even researched a written a position paper on it.

While regional data is not available, statewide the 2009 deer take included more than 120,700 antlerless deer—adult females and fawns—and just over 102,000 adult bucks. Antlerless takes grew by 3 percent from 2008 (117,232), while buck takes dropped 3.5 percent from 2008 (105,747).