Deer & Tick Committee seeks hunters: Recreational and professional hunters to cull herd

Four months since its last meeting in December, the Deer & Tick Committee met last week to assess its accomplishments in 2025 and begin plotting its course for this season.

Tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Suffolk County, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has released data that shows there were more cases of Lyme disease here than any U.S. county in 2023. Suffolk also had the most cases of alpha gal syndrome in the U.S. in 2023, according to the CDC. 

One way to combat the diseases is to eliminate ticks by culling deer herds. The Deer & Tick Committee meeting on April 3 focused on efforts to expand the Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (NWCO) program that depends on experienced licensed hunters to expand the number of deer taken during the earlier recreational deer hunting season, with more deer taken during the later winter “nuisance” hunt, licensed by the state.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), “This license authorizes an individual to take/trap, transport and release wildlife whenever the animal becomes a nuisance, destroys property or threatens public safety. The individual can conduct these activities for commercial purposes or as an employee of a municipality.”

There were 193 deer taken on Shelter Island in 2025 and the beginning of 2026. That is below the 236 count for the previous year and the lowest number of deer taken during the same period since 2006, according to Beau Payne, a member of the Police Department who provides advice to the Deer & Tick Committee.

A particularly cold, snowy winter contributed to fewer hunters this year along with some experienced hunters no longer participating in helping to reduce the deer herd.

Increasing the number of capable hunters by two would move the numbers higher, Mr. Payne said.

Organizations like White Buffalo, which provides professional hunters to reduce the deer herd, have been advising communities with major deer and tick issues to recognize that deer are here to stay and people should get used to them and find ways to cope with the problem. The Town has the tools it needs except manpower, committee member Julia Weisenberg said.

Talks in past years about hiring a firm like White Buffalo have been unpopular with Islanders because of safety concerns. Even extending the hunting season, as some communities do, is something that doesn’t happen because of safety worries with an increased population of summer residents and visitors.

Since the DEC banned use of 4-poster units — feeding stands that brush deer with a tickicide, permethrin — to reduce tick infestation, the Town has two basic options and is employing both: culling the deer herd and educating the public on how to avoid contracting tick-borne illnesses.

Ms. Weisenberg, who has been training bow hunters for the State DEC and operating an archery program for children on the Island, as well as doing some training with adults, asked to change the protocol to allow hunters who take deer from private sites instead of Town-managed areas to also participate in the Town’s reward program.

Ms. Weisenberg and Mr. Payne noted it takes a lot of evaluation to determine what it takes to become a licensed “nuisance hunter,” noting it’s not simply finding people who like to hunt and can pass the licensing for the job. They have to not only have experience as recreational hunters, but need the right temperament, and likely need to be retired to give time to the effort, Ms. Weisenberg said.

Ms. Weisenberg is also handling the educational outreach to the community, organizing programs with student groups in grades 3 – 6 in cooperation with Mashomack Preserve staff, members of neighborhood associations, seniors and various organizations. She also puts together information packets distributed through Town Hall, and at the school for parents.