Bow hunting may be allowed in Saratoga Spa State Park as soon as this fall.
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation proposal would grant 15 permits for crossbow and bow hunting of white-tailed deer between Oct. 13 and Jan. 1.
State officials say the plan is intended to manage the deer population and allow for forest regeneration.
“You know, according to DEC’s plan, those locally abundant deer populations that are in urban, suburban and otherwise developed areas present some unique management challenges. But the simplest and least expensive way to control the deer populations is to allow regulated hunting in areas where appropriate before the impacts become too severe.”
That’s Jesse Jaycox, a wildlife biologist with OPRHP, who said the deer population in Saratoga Spa State Park is considered “overabundant.”
“That heavy browsing of vegetation can have impacts not only on forest regeneration but it can also negatively effect a multitude of species that depend on healthy habitats. Quick overview; overbrowsing by deer prevents tree seedlings, wildflowers from growing which will change forrest structure. It may result in little to no understory. While deer preferably browse on native species which may enable invasive plants to take over,” said Jaycox.
State officials say the plan would also provide safe and enjoyable recreational and educational opportunities in the park, which sits between Saratoga Springs and Milton, and welcomes hundreds of thousands of spectators a year at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
But some animal rights activists have taken issue with the proposal, which would only allow hunting within a 650-acre plot in the 2,400-acre park and would prohibit hunting within 250 feet of any building, road, or parking lot.
“There have been studies in Oklahoma by the Fish and Wildlife Agency that found that up to 50% of the deer that were shot with a bow and arrow were never recovered. So, we’re talking about deer that end up getting away wounded and could possibly die over the course of several days.”
Patrick Battuello, a longtime Capital Region animal rights activist, said he would like to see alternative population control options presented to the public.
“So there are other options. It doesn’t get as much attention but there’s contraception and a costlier method would be outright sterilization so you never have to go back out for that annual booster that contraception requires. But that, obviously, is the humane alternative to shooting these animals,” said Battuello.
In a statement, OPRHP said while sterilization and contraception can work in some scenarios, “it has been ineffective at decreasing deer populations in landscapes where deer can move freely in and out of an area. Additionally, fertility control is costly, extremely labor-intensive, and stressful on the animals.”
Josh Ness, a biology professor at Skidmore College, studies the interactions between plants and animals and the way they are influenced by landscape changes and other factors.
He said when it comes to white-tailed deer:
“There’s usually either more deer than people want, or less deer than people want,” said Josh Ness.
Ness said he isn’t all that familiar with the deer population within the state park, but he says an outsized deer population comes with a number of consequences.
“Deer can have really strong effects on vegetation. They can absolutely favor the things that are tolerant of their consumption and really punish the things that are vulnerable to it. If one of the goals is to make [Saratoga Spa State Park] a particular sort of place, having too many deer could put that at risk in the sense that it will start to look like a lot of other places that have a lot of deer,” said Ness.
Ness adds plants that can’t escape the reach of deer can struggle to survive, impacting the area’s overall biodiversity.
“To use trillium as an example, trillium can easily be 20, 30, 40 years old. This little plant that’s not knee high. And the deer can absolutely kill them. Not with intent it’s just—if deer focused on a vulnerable thing and the thing has no refuge, you should expect it to disappear. Trillium is kind of a conspicuous example, or things like trillium, because sometimes you’ll see them growing on top of boulders and sometimes that happens because the deer can’t get above the boulders,” said Ness.
OPRHP is hosting a public meeting on the proposal May 14.
