One way or another, the deer population in East Hampton may have peaked.
At Tuesday’s East Hampton Town Board meeting, Councilman Tom Flight, who is liaison to the town’s wildlife management advisory committee, asked the board to consider a pilot program, based on a recommendation from the Land Management Department, to hire professional hunters to kill 100 deer in Springs.
Even as the town deliberates a professional cull, the State Department of Environmental Conservation has confirmed the presence on the East End of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, which is spread to deer by midges, or no-see-ums.
Councilman Flight said that since 2013, when the town first established a deer management plan with the goal of “restoring balance and sustainability to the town’s natural environment,” nothing has been done.
“We see over 500 collisions a year on the road involving deer,” he said. “The tick action committee has identified deer as the primary host for ticks, and the Land Management Department has been looking at biodiversity and says the lack of undergrowth is driven by an uncontrolled deer population.”
“I think it’s time we do take action,” he said. “My ask is for the town to say, ‘Yes, we would like the Land Management Department to go out and hire professionals to undertake this work.’ “
If the board agrees, any venison harvested would go to local food pantries. The cull would take place on anywhere from 1,200 to 1,800 acres of land in Springs.
Mr. Flight acknowledged that there are very diverse opinions on the wildlife management committee. Agreement had been elusive, he said, but there had been “great listening.”
Indeed, sitting in the audience as he spoke were Bill Crain of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, who is strongly against a cull, and, next to him, Terry O’Riordan, co-founder of the East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance, who strongly supports it.
The town board had earlier allocated $40,000 for deer management in 2026, and another $40,000 is already in the 2027 preliminary budget. If the program is successful, Mr. Flight asked the board to consider adding more money in 2027 in order to open a second pilot area.
If the full $40,000 is not spent this year, Mr. Flight suggested that $20,000 be spent on a tick-tube program, though its effects are as yet unclear. (Tick tubes target only deer ticks, but according to Suffolk County, it is the lone star tick that makes up well over 90 percent of the East End’s tick population.
The town board has previously declined to spend money on a deer population count, something that Mr. Crain, and Shari Thompson, who also spoke against the cull during the public comment period, asked members to reconsider.
Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte, along with Councilman David Lys, supported the idea of a pilot cull. “The problem is such that it’s obvious,” he said.
Councilwoman Cate Rogers was noncommittal, but suggested scheduling a presentation by Andrew Gaites of the Land Management Department, who would talk about the impact deer have on the environment. “Information from Andy Gaites would be very important for me to support this,” Ms. Rogers said.
The topic could find its way onto next week’s agenda again, as Mr. Flight recommended the cull should be conducted between now and April 2027.
There have been two confirmed cases of hemorrhagic disease in deer in this area, one in Riverhead and one in Southampton Town, which, in the short term, could be even more problematic for the animals. The D.E.C. has noted many suspicious deer deaths, and suggested that the disease may be more widespread.
For example, a wildlife rehabber in East Hampton reported several dead deer to the D.E.C., but those carcasses were not sampled for the virus.
Hemorrhagic disease is a general term for illness caused by two related viruses, E.H.D. and blue tongue. It cannot be transmitted to humans or dogs. There was an outbreak here in 2022.
Deer infected with either virus decline rapidly, dying within eight to 36 hours. There is no treatment and the D.E.C. says deer in New York “have no immunity to this virus.”
“Signs of E.H.D. include deer with no apparent injury found dead or alive in or near water,” says the agency. “Deer may be acting disoriented, have swollen necks and tongues, or have bloody fluid coming from the nose, mouth, or anus. There may be more than one deer in a small area.”
On Sept. 16, Kathleen Mulcahy, executive director of the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center, addressed her volunteer rehabbers on the subject.
“You may have seen a number of recent GroupMe posts regarding deer that are foaming at the mouth or appear sick, weak, or are lying in or near water,” she wrote. “After consulting with the D.E.C. we have determined the best cause of action is NOT to have rescue volunteers respond to these calls. This is of course heartbreaking to those of us who try to help wildlife every day in any way we can.”
“These deer are not appropriate candidates for wildlife rehabilitation,” she continued. Attempting to capture one could put the rescuer and the animal at “unnecessary risk.”
Hilary Osborn Malecki, who lives on Long Lane in East Hampton, described a recent interaction on her property with a deer that showed all the signs of E.H.D.
“We found a dead deer behind our shed,” she said in a phone call. “We’ve been here 26 years, and this is only our second dead deer. It was so deteriorated. This disease makes them disintegrate quickly, and it was a blanket of white maggots. Its jaw fell out putting it into the truck. It was gruesome.”
She believes the dead animal was the mother of two fawns, which hung around the house for a few days, especially near a kayak that contained water. “I had seen them drinking the water, usually they don’t do that. They started sleeping out in the open, while normally they sleep in tall grass.”
Then they disappeared.
Ms. Malecki said she’s checked with neighbors who keep track of herds of deer, and that no one else has noticed a die-off. Similarly, Rob Stanich, a member of the Sportsmen’s Alliance, said in an email, “I haven’t seen any sign of E.H.D. in person (so far) or on trail cams in Montauk. The deer seem healthy and abundant and fearful of humans (at least in the woods, in the neighborhoods they pretty much ignore us).”
“I haven’t seen or heard about any instances of it either, such as unexpected deer or ill deer,” wrote Bill O’Leary, also a member of the alliance.
The D.E.C. has stated that outbreaks do not have a significant long-term impact on deer populations, but that “deer mortality can be intense in small geographic areas.”
Any outbreak should end with the first hard frost, which kills the midges. Sightings of sick or dying deer should be sent to the D.E.C. on its E.H.D. Deer Report form.
