DEC's Low-Key Suffolk Meeting
on "Deer Management"

By Jerry Cimisi

One would have thought the DEC's Suffolk County meeting on "deer management," held at the Shoreham-Wading River Public Library on Sept. 24, would have been contentious, with impassioned leave-the-deer-alone types and the hell-with-the-deer types angrily espousing their party line. But it had absolutely none of that. There were 16 men in attendance; each was a hunter. On a screen at the front of the room was a photo of a blonde woman in camouflage proudly crouching by a deer she'd "taken," even though were only two women at the meeting, who were with the DEC. At any rate, it was a matter of preaching to the choir in that the DEC considers hunters one of its most important tools (if not the most important) for keeping the state's deer population at a "desirable level." At least that's the way DEC's young wildlife biologist, Michael Clark, put it: "It's going to be a sad day when hunters can't do what we need."

Just what is the current deer census, and what would be a "desirable level?" Clark said, "It's very hard to estimate. There are too many variables." He added that the DEC determined what was "too many or too little" by "listening to constituents."

It's no surprise that the "deer issue" depends as much - or more - on one's perspective as it does on the facts. One person gets Lyme disease from deer ticks; another is enchanted by deer gathering at twilight in the yard.

If estimates of the deer population are hard to come by, it is probably a surprise to learn that there are many more deer in the state at the beginning of the 21st century than there were at the beginning of the 20th. Before 1900, people just hunted what they wanted, and killed as many as they wanted when they wanted. Clarke projected a chart showing a precipitous drop in deer levels, plummeting toward 1900. Above this nadir was a grinning picture of Teddy Roosevelt, an enthusiastic hunter whose "kindness" in not shooting a bear cub after he'd shot the mother brought forth the Teddy Bear, and also began the national parks system, which became ironic Edens for those who loved to hunt and those who wished animals remain unharmed.

With regulations, the deer population eventually returned to at least half its levels (again, estimated) in the early days of America. The DEC, by at once encouraging hunters and regulating them, wants to keep this balance.

Clark raised other topics: regional task forces that meet every three to five years to discuss and plan changes in deer management; changing the current law that says a hunter must not discharge a weapon within 500 feet of a residence and is considered too restrictive; experimental feeding stations such as those on Shelter Island, North Haven and Fire Island; an increase to a take of does (a big key to deer management); liability, in that landowners who allow hunters to use their property are not, by law, liable for any accidents as a result of this use; and the need to encourage young hunters. "The average age of a hunter in 1984 was 42; now it's 48," Clark related. "There were 712,000 registered hunters in the state in '84; now there are 512,000."

When asked about this decrease, Clark said, "I think it's a cultural thing."

William Tuthill, 52, a hunter and retired fireman living in Nassau, said, "Nothing's more cruel than nature. We'd rather take an animal in a humane way than see it suffer in an unmanaged deer population in the wild." Tuthill, whose father and grandfather were hunters, has hunted upstate and on the East End, and is a descendent of one of the oldest families to settle this area. "The difference is, your meat comes wrapped in plastic, mine in fur," he said.

I countered that I was a vegetarian so that didn't apply to me, but the point about meat eaters decrying hunting when they purchase products of factory farming is nothing less than a convenient hypocrisy.

Tuthill hunts with a bow. Two-thirds of the 2,530 deer taken in Suffolk last year were by bow. "An arrow usually goes right through them. They don't really feel it. They know something's happened but they don't know what. They are bleeding internally. They keep on feeding, walk around a little, lie down, go to sleep."

Sami Eljami, in his mid-20s, had to be the youngest hunter at the meeting. He talked about being exposed to hunting by his uncles in Morocco and finally gaining enough skills to bring down deer on Long Island.

Clark exhorted hunters: "You're a minority. In order for your voice to be heard, it's got to be loud."

The DEC seeks comments: Deer Management Program, NYSDEC. 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4750. Website: www.dec.ny.govj

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