Deer Crisis Escalating on North Fork: 'We Have Too Many Deer; We Must Reduce the Herd'

On Saturday, members of the East Marion Community Association met to discuss the devastating impacts of deer on the North Fork, including tick-borne illnesses, car accidents and grave damage to the ecosystem.

"The Exploding Deer Population — What Can We Do About It?" meeting was held at the East Marion Firehouse; speakers included Amy Dries and Hazel Kahan of the North Fork Deer Management Alliance and Dave Dominy, co-chair of the Southold Town Deer Management Task Force.

Local residents have long rallied to try and weigh solutions. Southold Town has held numerous deer forums and engaged in a deer cull in recent years.

"I was very much a deer person," Kahan, who lives in Mattituck, said. "I have property and the deer were there and I thought, 'Aren't they lovely? Aren't they cute?'"

Until, she said, she attended a town-hosted deer forum at the Southold Recreation Center on Peconic Lane and heard from experts what crippling damage the deer were doing to local forests, ravaging the understory. "Then I did this complete conversion, and I began doing what I'm doing. Now I'm an activist, trying to work on the management of reducing the deer and herd."

One member of the North Fork Deer Management Alliance has been so ill with severe Lyme disease that she's been unable to attend meetings and must rely on email, Kahan said.

The mission of the group, she said, is to pool collective talents and skills to help reduce the herd.

"We want to reduce the herd to a manageable level consistent with our health, the health of the environment, and the health of the herd itself. We're looking for that balance," Kahan said.

Raising funds for educational brochure

The group is aiming to raise funds for an educational brochure; they hope to print 20,000 so they can be distributed to every single household in Southold Town. The group is applying for a grant to the Long Island Community Foundation to pay for creation and distribution of the the brochures. They'd also like to make a video and host additional presentations with a Power Point presentation created by Dries.

"The problem of deer belongs to every single household in our area," Kahan said. "We have too many deer. We are dedicated to returning the deer population to healthy levels so we can all live in harmony and economic balance, as well."

Deer are responsible, she said, for "too much of everything" including tick-borne diseases, accidents, destruction of forest, contamination of waters and economic devastation.

Southold Town, Kahan reminded, has created a new wildlife manager position in the 2016 budget; Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell has said at past town meetings that the position would also address wildlife including feral cats, wild geese and turkeys.

The meeting included an explanation of tick-borne diseases; deer are reproductive hosts.

Explosion of tick-borne diseases

Incidents of Lyme disease in Suffolk County, Kahan said, are 42.5 percent, compared to 36.6 percent in New York State. "We have more than our share," she said.

Auto accidents, meanwhile, continue to wreak havoc. According to statistics, 25 percent of all car accident in Southold Town involve deer strikes, Dries said. "That's 3.5 times the national average," she added.

In 2014, there were 229 reported deer/vehicle accidents, with 243 in 2015. Many remain unreported, she said. The accidents led to injury and damages, she said, as well as rising insurance costs.

"You might say that number is not a lot, but it has not gone down," Kahan said. "Despite what we're doing, it has not gone down."

Town of East Hampton's map

The Town of East Hampton, Dries said, has a geo-coded map available of all reported accidents involving deer on the road, with 1,966 road kills reported from 2008 to 2015, or 280 per year, all very close together, high-density, in an very residential area.

Water contamination is also an issue, with fecal contamination in waterways making some shellfish inedible.

The economic devastation for the area's agricultural industry is enormous, Dries said. "One farmer lost $150,000 in one week." With deer fences erected around farms, the deer are pushed out into residential areas, she added.

"Impractical, unaffordable, or undesirable solutions"

A number of solutions have proven to be impractical, too pricey, or undesirable, Dries said.

Those include yard spray for ticks, which is not practical for the North Fork, she said.

The 4-poster de-ticking stations on Shelter Island, which include a container to release corn for deer, along with paint rollers covered with Permithrin, to roll onto the deer and eradicate ticks, have issues. New York State regulations say that they cannot be sited within 300 feed or any roads or in any area where children or present, Dries said. Also, in order to be effective, 90 percent or more of the deer population must use the stations. "It's recommended to install one for every 40 to 50 acres. Southold Town is 32,000 acres," Dries said, making them far too cost-prohibitive, something Russell has long maintained.

Kahan added that the program is controversial; one Shelter Island resident said last year, deer consumed 41 lbs. of corn per day at the 4-posters and managed to avoid the Permithrin on the rollers, anyway.

Last year, the price of corn to the town was $51,000. Town employees wearing hazmat suits fill the feeders twice a week.

"They're getting a free meal," he said. In addition, he said, the deer are gaining weight, up 15 percent, with enhanced fertility due to the 4-posters. Deer that were giving birth to one or two fawns are now yielding two to three.

In addition, there have been no followup study after one done in 2011 to indicate the effects of Permithrin exposure on deer and potential tainted meat.

Finally, he said, the 4-posters also attract raccoons, turkeys and squirrels who feed and then, get exposed to ticks, which they carry away.

And, Kahan said, the large presence of wildlife at the 4-posters is also causing destruction to the natural environment where they're located.

Fertility options were also discussed, including surgical sterilization and contraceptive vaccines, Dries said. It costs $500 to sterilize one deer and $1,000 per deer for booster shots. To be effective, over 90 percent of the deer population has to be sterilized and vaccinated over a three-year period.

"Our level of frustration is high. We're asking you to be part of the solution," Kahan said.

Southold's Deer Management Task Force

Dominy agreed deer are a critical concern. "It's a nightmare," he said.

But the town has been working to address the issues. To date, he said, hunters are allowed on 600 acres of town-owned parcels, with 1,390 deer harvested since 2008 and 35,000 lbs. of deer meat donated, with the use of a town-owned venison cooler.

This year alone, Dominy said, from 2015 to 2016 on town land, 135 hunters have harvested 250 deer, with 150 deer donated to a venison coalition to distribute meat. Locally, 55 deer were given out, residents can go and pick up a deer for free and seek a private processing facility.

While it might seem prudent to just kill bucks, Dominy said actually, it's the opposite. "One buck can breed does. If you harvest the does, you now limit the amount he can breed. For every doe harvested there are also two fawns." The town has an unlimited doe season and tags, he said.

One new development, he said, is a tax credit available to hunters for donating deer to the town's cooler.

A survey is being developed to allow for more feedback from hunters, he said. A former required setback of 500 feet is now 150 feet, he said.

Additional land must be opened up to see widespread results, Dominy said.

Civic groups and homeowners associations can get involved by allowing hunters on their properties. "If a community comes together, as they have on Nassau Point," hunters can be allowed on private land, he said.

Properties shared between the town and county are not open for hunting, something he'd like to see change, Dominy said.

Reflecting on the controversial Southold Town deer cull, Dominy reminded that the cull did not take place on town lands; it was only allowed on the land of individual farm owners and the program was funded with a grant through the Long Island Farm Bureau. Nassau Point, he said, does a cull every year funded by home owners.

The cull, which brought USDA sharp shooters, stirred controversy among hunters, who are local and willing to do the job for free, Dominy said.

A sign up sheet was available for home owners who'd like to contact hunters in town.

In addition, the North Fork Deer Management Alliance is working on a new tick report, with tips on reducing and eradicating the tick population, which will be available soon.

Hunting season is October 1 through January 1, Dominy said; in order to hunt in a private community or on a farm, nuisance permits are required from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Cutchogue member Benja Schwartz said deer are mentioned in the Bible and are animals with a rich history. Kahan reminded that she loves deer and all animals but said the problem in town is out of control.