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In 2024, the state Legislature approved a temporary Urban Deer Management Pilot program for Syracuse and Southfield to study new ways of dealing with expanding urban deer populations.
The program has included placing bait within 300 feet of a road, taking deer from a public highway, use of a spotlight from a vehicle while in possession of an unloaded firearm, and additional exceptions for the discharge of firearms, long bows or crossbows within 250 to 500 feet of an occupied structures with notification of landowners or at distances less than 250 feet with written consent of all owners or renters.
In the eyes of the state DEC, the program has been a success. The number of deer removed from the deer population in Syracuse has returned to 2019-20 levels after dropping prior to the pilot program. A recent DEC report recommends extending all DEC permits that authorize removal of deer by a nuisance wildlife specialist to use the enhanced authorizations in the pilot program; authorizing nuisance wildlife specialists to discharge a firearm from a stationary vehicle mounted with an elevated shooting platform while also allowing the specialists to possess a loaded firearm in and on a motor vehicle, use spotlights and thermal detection devices from a vehicle while in possession of a loaded firearm and shoot across or from a road; and expanding the definition of nuisance wildlife specialist to include private contractors that offer professional wildlife removal/sharp-shooting services equal to or exceeding current requirements.
"”Wildlife Services reported that the pilot program improved land access for deer removal and their ability to operate in the urban environment of Syracuse,” the DEC report states. “However, statutory restrictions continue to limit overall effectiveness and efficiency of the program."
Regardless of one's personal feelings about Jamestown's urban deer population – and we know there is absolutely zero consensus in Jamestown whether or not to decrease that population – we have a hard time with the state Legislature undertaking a simple extension of the pilot program and disregarding the DEC's request to expand the ways it deals with urban deer in areas that come to the DEC for help. The DEC, after all, would know better than most state lawmakers whether or not the deer populations in an area need to be culled when approving permits to harvest deer inside an urban area. The DEC has zero interest in approving a program that could result in any sort of injury to the general public. In this instance, the DEC is absolutely the organization that the state Legislature should be listening to – and yet the legislature doesn't seem to be paying attention to the agency it pays to handle these decisions.
The state DEC has seen enough of the Urban Deer Management Pilot to recommend it be used statewide in municipalities that want to use it. It's seen enough to have formed strong recommendations about the avenues needed to best deal with deer in urban areas.
What's the legislature's hold up?