Program will change somewhat due to ongoing permit review by state DEC
The village of Fayetteville will continue its deer culling program for a third consecutive year in 2018, although the program will be slightly different than it has been in the past, specifically with fewer hunting sites and limits on how the deer can be collected.
The program changes are due to the currently ongoing review of state environmental law and the legality of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s nuisance permits that allow deer culling, said Mayor Mark Olson.
For the past two years, the village of Fayetteville has used a bait-and-shoot method carried out by United States Department of Agriculture sharpshooters. The sharpshooters hunt from elevated stands and from parked vehicles at designated locations throughout the village.
According to the USDA, a recent review of the hunting permit concluded that the DEC does not have the authority to permit certain activities that have been allowed in the past, including the use of bait within 300 feet of a public highway, possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, discharge of firearms within 500 feet from a structure and discharge of a firearm from a road.
Because the Fayetteville program has been ongoing and successful for two years, the village will be allowed to continue in 2018 as long as it follows the new restrictions — while other municipalities like DeWitt, which approved its own culling program earlier this month, may have to wait until final decisions are made on the permit process before they can start their programs, Olson said.
“We’ve had two years of no incidents, no calls from residents, no complaints — it works, and the DEC recognizes that,” Olson said.
For Fayetteville, the new rules mean that instead of the 12 designated hunting zones used in 2017, there will be only four sites used in 2018 — the four that fit into the new limitations. If the deer yield is low at those four sites, however, the DEC will allow Fayetteville to hunt from additional sites, Olson said.
In 2017, the Fayetteville deer management program removed 76 deer from the village, while 89 were taken in 2016. All the meat from the killed deer was donated to the Food Bank of Central New York.
Fayetteville’s deer culling is scheduled to begin Jan. 2, 2018, Olson said.
