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Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor

REPORTER FILE PHOTO|
REPORTER FILE PHOTO|

Building a true committee
To the Editor:
The fact is that if we kill all the deer on Shelter Island, we will eliminate ticks because we will eliminate their final blood meal. At least, that is the theory.

But the idea of eliminating all the deer is anathema to a good percentage of the residents of the Island. So that has never been seen as a viable option.

Permethrin kills ticks. No doubt about it.

So we can spray our lawns every few weeks at $100 a treatment. At least those who can afford it. There are some down sides to this. For instance, it is prohibited to spray in the Near Shore Overlay District for fear permethrin will drift into the sea where it also kills fish. And permethrin on the hands of children playing on treated grass is a health hazard.

Or we can treat the heads of deer with permethrin to kill the ticks who congregate there to suck blood. That’s what the 4-poster does. An advantage is that it directs the permethrin to a very limited surface and thus does not contaminate the environment. Contrary to a recently expressed opinion, the corn is candy and does not constitute real food. It is not making them larger or the herd bigger.

The down side to the 4-poster is cost. Each unit costs about $5,000 a year to maintain. Sixty units, which cover the entire Island, cost about $300,000 per year.

Those have been the quandaries since this journey began a decade or so ago.

There is a new issue, however, that demands fixing: the lack of attendance at Deer and Tick Committee meetings.

Although the committee looks robust on paper, it’s unusual to have a quorum, which means that no business can be conducted. When I was chairman, we had a member who never attended a meeting. I mean, never. His work schedule prevented his attendance. It annoyed me no end. I have been led to believe that this is true of a number of the present members.

Come on guys and gals! What is the purpose of being on a committee when you cannot attend and by your absence preclude others from deliberating? Is it some kind of prestige thing, to add to your resume?
PATRICIA SHILLINGBURG
Shelter Island

4-posters don’t work
To the Editor:
“Eat and treat” does not work — in the long run!

Dr. Zitek reports that encouraging deer to “eat” corn while “treating” them with permethrin reduces ticks by 87 percent. What he does not mention:

• Cornell only measured tick reduction within 300 meters. Other studies show little reduction much beyond 300 meters. In Cape Cod, tick reduction was 8.7 percent.
• Corn consumption has increased at feeding stations from 12 pounds per day to 41 pounds per day for 220 days annually. We now supply Island deer with 320,000 pounds of corn a year.
• Registered hunters are down 66 percent on Shelter Island since the start of permethrin feeding stations. In the Town of Southampton, where 4-posters are not used, the number of hunters has remained constant.
• The statement that permethrin on the 4-poster is better than permethrin sprayed on the ground is a false argument. Fewer deer would require less in permethrin deployed Island-wide.
• There are no major ongoing university-based feeding station studies. All were discontinued due to inefficiency, except where deer density was 8/12 per square mile. Our deer density far exceeds that and is growing.
• The unintended consequences of the well-intended program is a larger, healthier herd. The more deer there are, the more deer need to be treated by being fed.
• Approximately 30 town 4-posters currently account for 97 percent of our deer and tick budget ($130,000). We are told that 60 are needed.

Disease and deer-related destruction will only increase as the herd increases. What plan does our Island have to address our health emergency? “Eat and treat” will not provide our solution over the long run.

Two years ago I was a supporter of the 4-posters and raised funds to help fund the program. After research, I came to the conclusion that it is not an effective solution.
MARC WEIN
Shelter Island
Mr. Wein is a member of the Deer & Tick Committee.

Criminal
To the Editor:
An editorial in this newspaper [from 1990] questioned the ethics of protecting the advertising revenue of the Reporter and the health of the local economy, as opposed to helping protect the health of the public. Printing news about Lyme disease and ticks has a negative effect on tourism.

The Reporter is an integral part of how our local democracy functions. Its business is journalism, even when it affects the bottom line. Keeping the public informed is the creed of a free press.

Over the last 25 years since that editorial appeared, we have learned much more about how widespread and devastating Lyme and other environmental diseases are. Yet, still, little is printed here about how tick-borne diseases can now be fatal and how we can all better protect ourselves.

In other communities, we depend on various agencies and the media to warn us about environmental dangers. Informing our visitors from the city about unfamiliar dangers would be the right thing to do. But we don’t.

Tourists assume that if there are no advisories, then there is no problem. Many believe that ticks are of no consequence unless you are in the woods. Wrong.

Likewise, many presume that Fresh Pond is pure and safe. Fresh Pond remains on the latest DEC impaired (polluted) water body list and is an unmonitored class C (noncontact) pond. Those with toddlers, pets, open wounds or compromised immune systems should be especially aware of the potential health risk. A sign informing the public of the pollution was removed by the town.

Our Town Board refuses to be proactive and transparent about these environmental health concerns. Such deliberate deceptions and willful blindness should not be reinforced by the Reporter. The silence is deafening.

The Reporter should reprint “Taking precautions against outdoor pests” by Martin Garrell (Suffolk Times, July 2, 2015). The Reporter could also print the “Shelter Island Deer and Tick Committee White Paper” from last February. You can find it buried on the Shelter Island Police website. It is an eye-opening and newsworthy document. It should be read in full, not just the part about culling the herd.

To profit by knowingly jeopardizing the public health, unnecessarily risking the well-being of any child, is unconscionable.

But it happens every day here on Shelter Island. In 1990 the editor wrote that this is an “ethical dilemma.” It seems criminal to me.
VINCENT NOVAK
Shelter Island

Marker
To the Editor:
To whoever removed our Little Tikes tug boat from South Cartwright Road, please return it. It marks our road.
Thank you.
DONA BERGIN
Shelter Island