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Disney Studios may have made it harder for the Village of Lansing to cope with an overpopulation of deer.  Known to hunters as 'The Bambi Effect,' the phenomenonnamed for the Disney movie describes an emotional public outcry when animals that are considered to be cute are targeted, regardless of environmental or scientific concerns.  "In all the states you have populations of deer that have exceeded the carrying capacity of a lot of places," said Trustee Lynn Leopold.  "We're seeing the disappearance of entire flora in New York State.  It goes way beyond the borders of our village.  But there's a huge lobby against it."

But killing excess deer is currently the only viable solution according to Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) representatives who attended Monday's Village Trustee meeting.  Dave Richlman and Curt Armstrong of the Cortland DEC office presented information that the Board hoped would help them decide how to control the village deer problem.  Mayor Don Hartill said that 30 to 35 deer per year are killed in the village in collisions with cars.  He said Village officials would like to thin the herd by twice that number. With an estimated 700,000 deer in New york State many communities have struggled with the problem.  Excess deer defoliate forests and gardens and cause damage to property and crops.  The reduced availability of food leads to disease and the decline of other animals and plants.  New growth that is eaten does not replace failing old growth.  And while the deer population is growing, Armstrong told the Trustees that the population of hunters and the number of deer they kill is declining.

Richlman described deer management techniques that could help by controlling the herd's fertility.  But he said that these methods are not effective yet.  Part of the reason is that dart guns with darts containing birth control substances are subject to the same restrictions as hunting rifles -- they can not be shot within 500 feet of a house without the property owner's permission.  And sterilization is experimental and not effective yet.  "It's probably going to be at least a couple of years yet before there is a registered product that will be available for a community to make use of," Richlman said.  "But if you truly want to control deer numbers you've got to take some animals off the landscape somehow. 


That means that deer must be captured and sterilized.  Trapping deer is prevented by law, and capturing them for relocation is no longer an option.  Concerns about chronic wasting disease, tuberculosis, and other diseases make relocation chancy.  "We're not going to let people catch the deer and let them go in the wild," Richlman said.  "You're just moving a headache around, and potentially -- worse yet -- moving disease around."

Hartill said that an invitational bow hunt had been conducted on Sundown Farm in the past, but the landowner stopped the hunts after uninvited hunters horned in.  He said he wants to reduce the number of deer auto collisions and excessive damage in the Village including to his own property.  "I saw one animal in our back yard eating our blue spruce tree," he said.

Armstrong explained DEC's Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) which allows landowners additional deer tags which they can pass on to licensed hunters they are willing to allow on their property.  The purpose of the program is to manage deer in small geographic areas during deer hunting season.  He said that a municipality could submit a plan to the DEC in which it works with landowners to set goals for the number of deer it wants to eliminate.  "It's a very effective and appropriate way to go," Armstrong said.

Cayuga Heights Mayor Walter Lynn asked whether a DMAP plan is possible at the county level.  His village sent a resolution to the Tompkins County legislature stating that it is a county-wide problem, and has been conducting a deer sterilization program in Cayuga Heights.  "The deer don't know that they're in the Village of Cayuga Heights or the Village of Lansing," he said.  "Is DMAP doable at the county level?"

"I would think it would be difficult just because of the massive scale of it," Armstrong replied.  "It's not impossible, but it would be a big one!"  He noted that deer tend to stay in a specific area except young bucks.  "This is a program to address hot spots where they occur."

Trustee Frank Moore suggested that the Village send a delegation to communities that have been successful in reducing their deer populations.  "There are a lot of communities that have struggled with deer and set up programs," Armstrong noted.  "There's a lot to be gained from talking to these other communities."

The DEC officials left literature with the Trustees, giving them a lot to think about.  Bow hunts seemed the best solution.  "It comes down to lethal removal in one form or another," Richlman said.

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