Fayetteville — The village of Fayetteville began the culling of white-tailed deer by USDA sharpshooters on March 1, and the window of action is planned to run until the end of the month, Mayor Mark Olson announced in a statement on Feb. 29.
The baiting of the deer has already concluded and hunting will be carried out by sharpshooters on public property at night, with night-time park closures in effect and enforced to ensure the safety of the residents until the end of the hunting period, according to a press release from the Village of Fayetteville Offices.
“Proactive safety measures will be in place to protect the community. Highly trained marksmen from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working under direction of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, under agreement with the village and in coordination with local law enforcement, will conduct reduction actions at night when the village owned property is normally closed,” said the press release.
White-tailed deer management was pursued by the Fayetteville Village Board beginning in early 2015 as a response to the increase in Lyme Disease cases, as well as preventing vehicular accidents and damage to property caused by the abundance of white-tailed deer in the village.
The original deer management program to use volunteer bow hunters to bait-and-cull deer was approved by the village board in November 2015. The program underwent a dramatic change on Jan. 11 after the village board approved the use of United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Wildlife Services to bait-and-cull white tailed deer through the use of skilled sharpshooters with suppressed rifles rather than bowhunters to eliminate village deer. The village also contracted with an aviation company to conduct flyovers of the village to observe deer population density.
According to Olson, the sharpshooters’ approach will work the same as the originally planned bowhunting program. The baiting and culling of deer will occur during a period of up to eight days on four different deer management areas from elevated stands, which will be on public property. The village has opted to have the USDA come in for up to eight different hunts, but not all days will have to be utilized if it is not needed.
continued — Olson said the village deer committee believed contracting with the USDA was the best option for the village for several reasons: the sharpshooters are skilled with shooting the deer safely and have criteria in place to ensure uniformity; the package with the USDA includes the feeding, shooting and removal of deer so the village would not have to rely on volunteers and municipal workers to do this; the possibility of volunteers being overworked and dropping out is gone; rifles would be more successful in killing the deer than a bow and arrow; and there isn’t a concern of wounded deer walking around the village.
The program with the USDA costs about $16,000, but the village hopes to be awarded a $20,000 grant from the Onondaga County Legislature funded through their recently approved deer management program, Olson said. The original volunteer bowhunting program would have cost around $5,000 to complete, but Olson said he believes the sharpshooter alternative will be worth it in the long run when it was approved on Jan. 11.
For more information about the deer management plan, visit the village offices at 425 E. Genesee St. in Fayetteville, call 637-9864 or go to fayettevilleny.gov.
