Deer don’t have many natural predators left in New York. Wolves and mountain lions, animals normally at the top of the food chain, are gone. So, that leaves it up to hunters to manage deer populations.
Read the full transcript below:
Lucas Willard: This is WAMC’s Northeast Notebook. I’m Lucas Willard. It’s deer hunting season. And this year, hunters are needed in New York. The state is facing an increase in white-tailed deer populations. With few natural predators, too many deer are grazing their way through fields and forests, having unexpected run-ins with motorists, and affecting the overall health of ecosystems. On this episode, we’ll learn about new efforts to tackle a growing issue in the state.
Collin Magruder: So, I have multiple spots on my property because of different hunting seasons…
Lucas Willard: Collin Magruder’s home in southern Albany County is located on 8.5 acres of land that forest critters – including white tailed deer – seem to absolutely love.
Lucas to Colin: So this is kind of the area that deer like to hang out in because you have brushy, sort of this low hollow over here, you have these more clear paths crisscrossing, and then you have a little grassy clearing right over that way…
Collin Magruder: And across the street is about 80 acres of corn. So, and then behind us, is...very hilly. There's a nice big creek. There's the Hannacroix Creek that goes behind us, and that's where they sleep, is behind my hill, and they feed across the hill.
Lucas Willard: So, you're right in the middle.
Collin Magruder: Yeah, crossroads. Yep, it's perfect.
Lucas Willard: And in the woods surrounding his house, Collin has installed trail cameras, a tree stand, and a couple deer blinds.
Collin Magruder: And this is where I get all of the action come rifle season. This is a path that they use, so then I'll come sit up here. They won't see me because I'll be back to the tree, and they come down this hill, and it's a perfect shot.
Lucas Willard: It’s a warm October evening, and while crunching through the leaves, I spotted lots of tracks. Earlier this bow hunting and muzzle-loading season, Collin snagged a deer on his property. He tells me he managed to load the deer into the back of his SUV, drop off the carcass at the butcher shop, and get home within an hour. His freezer is now full of venison, which he and his family will eat during the colder months. Collin has had pretty good luck hunting in his backyard. But he’s also seen lots of deer – and had a few near-misses – on his way to work lately.
Collin Magruder: In recent years, on my way to work, which is very early, I leave at 5:45, 6 o'clock, you know, dark, and I've seen an increase in how many deer I have to dodge on my way to work. Now, a lot of my commute is backroads, but still some of the worst deer that I've seen crossings, anyways, were crossing into Delmar, crossing [Route] 32 up into Delmar, and then, same thing coming up [Route] 85 through Slingerlands by the Price Chopper, tons there all the time, and I've seen a lot more on the sides of roads lately.
Brendan Quirion: Deer vehicle collisions, tick-borne diseases, crop damage, all those are negative impacts of deer that become overabundant.
Lucas Willard: Brendan Quirion is a wildlife biologist and Big Game Unit Leader for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Too many deer, especially does, he explains, can also degrade the hunting experience.
Brendan Quirion: And then it can also affect the hunting experience. So, when the buck to doe ratio is out of balance, you have too many does on the landscape to the number of bucks, then breeding activity can actually decrease in your area. You won't see bucks sparring or making rubs or scrapes nearly as often.
Lucas Willard: And, as Brendan explains, the problem of too many deer is getting worse in areas across the state.
Brendan Quirion: It’s been a challenge, primarily on Long Island, the Lower Hudson Valley, and Western New York for quite some time. But we’re seeing those areas expand. So, it’s now much farther up in the Hudson Valley, it’s spreading out into the Central-Finger Lakes, so more areas of the state, we’re seeing increasing deer populations, and populations that are not in alignment with our deer management objectives. In under the most severe situations, you'll have a forest with literally no vegetation in the understory, and that means your future forest is basically compromised, and all of the other wildlife species that relied on that vegetation no longer have habitat.
Lucas Willard: The truth is, deer do not have many natural predators left in New York. Wolves and mountain lions, animals normally at the top of the food chain, are essentially wiped-out in the state. So, that leaves it up to hunters to manage deer populations. And, as Brendan says, the number of hunters is shrinking.
Brendan Quirion: I would say in the you know 1980s we had about 700,000 hunters in New York. Recent years, we have about 550,000, maybe 530,000. That's been pretty stable for a while, but as more and more hunters start aging out of the sport as the baby boomers start aging out, that number could continue to decrease. And that's what we're trying to address through our three efforts. So, our hunter education program focuses on hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation to make sure that we still have enough hunters out there contributing to wildlife management conservation to make sure that we don't run into these types of issues.
Lucas Willard: And what about young people? Are they just less interested these days? What's the issue there?
Brendan Quirion: Yeah, to some extent, I think young people have been drawn to other hobbies and other forms of recreation, and so that's, again, something else we're trying to address through our hunter recruitment efforts: is to demonstrate that hunting is a valuable hobby. It allows you to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. It allows you to know where your food is coming from, and has so many benefits for young people, old people alike.
Lucas Willard: There are a few new steps the DEC is taking to increase the deer harvest. And as the DEC monitors deer populations across the state, one of the more headline-grabbing stories this past year related to deer hunting was the move by New York State Parks to allow bow hunting in Saratoga Spa State Park. The Saratoga Springs park is home to a music venue, museums, pools, a golf course, and lots of deer.
Aaron Shellow-Lavine: Deer can pose really, very serious ecological impacts to areas which, in a park like this park, is very important. Like, it’s a gorgeous park in the summer. I love walking my dog through it, I love riding my bike through it, I am not alone.
Lucas Willard: WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Aaron Shellow-Lavine followed the lead-up to this year’s pilot program at the park, where 15 hunters were given permits to harvest deer.
Aaron Shellow-Lavine: The Folks who came out to a couple of the community meetings, pretty upset. Again, they just don’t like the idea of hunting happening in their backyards. So, nobody’s ever going to be fully happy. But, again, on the other side of things, we saw a lot of people who were very encouraged by this. They thought that this was a growing problem and they enjoy the idea of being a part of the solution.
Lucas Willard: The archery-only hunting season in the state park began on October 13th and will continue through January 1st. But, as of October 28th, State Parks says none of the permitted hunters had reported a deer harvest in the park. But perhaps New York’s most significant effort to encourage deer hunting in 2026 is the Earn-a-Second-Buck System.
Brendan Quirion: This year, you're only getting one when you purchase your hunting license, and in order to get that second buck tag, you have to harvest a doe first and report it. So, it creates this incentive for hunters to harvest and report does because they want that second buck tag.
Lucas Willard: So, in other words, hunters will have the chance to get themselves a second antlered deer with their hunting method of choice, but they’ll have to harvest a doe first. And as Brendan explains, DEC is seeing some promising data from the new program.
Brendan Quirion: The thing that we're monitoring is the data, and we're seeing pretty significant increases in antlerless deer harvest, which we wanted to see. You know, we just pulled the data yesterday, and it seems like we're double the harvest reports from where we were last year, so that's encouraging to see. And most of those reports are for antlerless deer. And then, as far as what we're hearing from hunters, you know, it is a mixed bag. Some, you know, really value the opportunity to be able to harvest two bucks within the same season. Others, you know, they're concerned about potential overharvest of bucks or impacts to the buck age structure, and those are things that we're going to be monitoring for and addressing as necessary.
Lucas Willard: Back in his sprawling Albany County backyard, Collin Magruder does not yet know if he’ll continue his bow hunting. He’ll climb up his tree stand once it’s rifle season. But, until then, there’s plenty of time for archery practice.
Collin Magruder: Bullseye.
Lucas Willard: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Our editor is Diane DeVore. Music by Eduardo Rivera. Please leave a like and a review if you liked the show. This episode was produced by me, Lucas Willard. Thanks for listening.
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