Editorial

Editorial: Time to get serious about deer cull

REPORTER FILE PHOTO|
REPORTER FILE PHOTO|

Either Shelter Island has a health crisis stemming from ticks or it doesn’t.

A group of well-intentioned people — mostly volunteers on the Deer & Tick Committee — have been wrestling with the issue of how to control the burgeoning deer population blamed for increased incidences of tick-borne diseases.

Whatever the committee’s intentions, the reality is that while all agree there needs to be more money spent on deer management, there’s a tendency to brush aside suggestions about how to effectively tackle the job.

After months of meetings, batting around the same information and coming up with few suggestions for action, the committee has finally focused on a revised incentive program. But at least one close observer — Police Chief Jim Read — seems to be skeptical about whether it will result in more hunters taking more deer unless the program is run properly.

Hunter Beau Payne has told committee members the difficulty is twofold: Recreational hunters have limited time to give to the effort and they’re not all convinced the problem is as critical as officials seem to think it is.

They may not be correct about the second point, but who can argue with the first?

Committee member Marc Wein has said it’s unfair to put the entire burden on a few hunters without significant incentives. The new incentives will do little more than offset hunters’ costs for ammunition, arrows and other equipment. It’s unlikely to be enough to convince the approximately 20 hunters registered with the town to increase their efforts.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation needs to be awakened to the reality of the problem and abandon its policy of prohibiting paying recreational hunters for deer kills. This town and others dance around that prohibition, but it needs to be eliminated. Deer & Tick Committee Chairman Mike Scheibel says the DEC is aware of municipalities clamoring for a change in the policy. He may be right, but clearly, the need is not being driven home with any force since the policy remains in effect.

The committee needs to rally residents to pressure the DEC to remove barriers and open more sites to hunting while greatly improving incentives to attract hunters into the field.

Chairman Mike Scheibel’s response to various suggestions has been that there’s no interest among the public for allowing hunting on certain plots of land, or using sharpshooters, or bringing off-Island recreational hunters here to take more deer.

If he’s right and a means of managing the herd can’t be found, the Deer & Tick Committee might just as well surrender and leave the Island to the deer.