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While hyperbole and conflict have plagued Cayuga Heights' deer population control efforts, the Village of Lansing has quietly gone forward with its own program over the past four years.  Gardens and lawns are certainly being damaged by the overpopulation of deer in the Village, but a greater concern for Village Trustees is the damage being done to forested areas, where virtually all new growth in the municipality is being decimated.  Just before New Year officials met to evaluate last year's deer culling effort, and discussed changes at the Cortland DEC office that may allow the Village to make its program more effective.

"Are they changing their thinking from looking at the landscaping to looking at what's happening ecologically?" Trustee Lynn Leopold asked.  "That's where the damage is.  They just have to change their thinking.  It's not about our shrubbery."

Leopold herself lives on forested land that has been devastated by too many deer.  In November of 2008 Leopold took the Lansing Star on a tour of her woods (Click here for that story).  All new growth had been eaten except that behind fenced areas she had built around the woods.  She and Trustee John O'Neill have taken the lead on the population control program, with help from Dr. Bernd Blossey and Dr. Jay Boulanger, who heads the deer population control efforts on Cornell University land.  Blossey has organized bowhunters for the Village hunt since it began.  Boulanger manages the Cornell hunting program for Cornell Cooperative Extension.  The two estimate a population in the Village of two to three hundred deer.

Mayor Donald Hartill estimates that 40 or more deer are killed in collisions with automobiles each year, but even when you add that figure to those killed in the Village sanctioned hunt it is not enough to bring the population down to a size where there is enough food for the herd and an opportunity for growth in wooded land and private yards.  In December Leopold said DEC officials were estimating a healthy density of about two deer per square mile.  Boulander noted that In the Adirondacks five to eight deer per square mile is considered to be too many.  Healthy density refers to the amount of space that can both sustain the deer and new growth that will insure they have a food source in the future as well.

"Think of it," she said.  "We have four or five square miles here in the Village, and we have two or three hundred deer.  They need to be rare."

In the first year of the Village deer population control program 11 deer were taken, and seven in the second year.  Last  year about 38 deer were taken in controlled bow hunts for population management on four properties.  Blossey controlled the hunt on three of those properties that accounted for 33 of the deer killed.  This year three or four more properties were added to the Village approved bow hunt, amounting to about 110 additional acres, and the count was 41, not counting a few properties not controlled by Blossey's part of the program.  The total 2010 count from all hunted properties is not in yet.

The current Village program makes use of DMAP tags that allow hunters to kill two antlerless deer on top of whatever number of hunting tags they have obtained through normal routes.  Blossey said that the low number allotted to each hunter quickly disqualifies the most skilled hunters, because they take their deer quickly and run out of tags.  Skilled hunters are able to kill deer more humanely.  By carefully screening hunters before allowing them into the program, and communicating with them regularly via a private Web site Blossey was able to share sightings and tips to maximize the success of the program.

While the Village program has shown some success, Leopold says that her woods are exactly as bare as they were in 2008.  Blossey says that the hunters need to be able to spread out over more acreage in the Village, frequently moving deer stands because the animals quickly catch on to which trees the arrows are coming from.

"They know what's going on, too," he told the Trustees.  "The dumb ones are all in the freezer.  So they are in the know.  I believe from what we are seeing that the numbers are not what they should be.  They're way too high."

Blossey mentioned new personnel at the NYS DEC, the agency that manages hunting across the state, may be willing to make new interpretations of existing regulations that could benefit the Village program.  He said it might be possible to have the 500 foot rule, which does not allow hunting within 500 feet of a residence, school, etc., reduced to 200 feet.  And he advocated getting permission for deer bow hunting from more residents across the Village.

"We certainly need to spread out," Boulanger added.  "We're hunting in these very small islands in a large sea of deer.  It sounds like there are residents in the Village that are willing to allow us to go on their property if we're sanctioned through the Village."

He also suggested that nuisance permits might be used to extend the deer hunting season with strict rules within the Village.  He noted that nuisance permits have been traditionally granted to landowners such as farmers whose crops and livelihood  are being threatened by the deer.  But he said that new DEC personnel may be willing to consider the idea that a deer herd could be a nuisance to a whole municipality.

"Obviously we're hunting locally in the places where we are allowed to hunt," he said.  "There are larger pieces of the Village that we are not touching.  Jay's program is touching them a little bit on the Cornell properties.  We have heard through the grapevine that there are landowners who are upset now."

While Blossey says that his group doesn't see the vehemence of opposition that is occurring in Cayuga Heights, there is some opposition in the Village of Lansing.  He suggested that Trustees enforce Village law that prohibits feeding deer, noting that some residents are feeding the deer.

"Enforcement is always an ugly process, but that is something you might want to consider," he said.  "We know of at least three properties where that is happening."

There was some talk of expanding the deer control effort to include neighboring land that could include Cayuga Heights, Cornell, State Parks, the land trust, Cornell Plantations, all of which are struggling with the same issues.  Boulanger said that his group has put in a very large grant proposal for a five year controlled research experiment looking at some alternative deer reduction programs in suburban landscapes.  He said the Village of Lansing would be a part of that.

In the three years since Village officials initiated their population control program they have learned from experience and tweaked the program, and Trustees indicated they would review Blossey's recommendations and make appropriate changes before the 2011 hunt.  Leopold, a vocal environmentalist, says that much more progress must be made to save forested land in the Village.

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