The 416-acre Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve is home to a deer population approximately 10 times greater than what is considered sustainable—an overabundance that affects not only the ecological integrity of the Preserve, but also the lives of Vassar’s neighbors in the Poughkeepsie community.
On Friday, April 24, a panel of local deer management experts assembled to discuss the overpopulation problem before a small yet highly engaged audience of Vassar professors and administrators, Poughkeepsie residents, and a few students in Sanders Physics 207.
The forum, moderated by Assistant Professor of Philosophy Jamie Kelly, began with an introduction by Carrie Levine ’09. Levine, a biology major, gave a brief presentation demonstrating her research comparing the ecological impact of deer overpopulation at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve and the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies with the situation on Vassar’s Farm and Ecological Preserve.
Following Levine’s introduction, each panelist gave a short talk detailing their experiences controlling deer populations at various field sites.
The first panelist was Anthony J. DeNicola, President of White Buffalo, Inc., a non-profit wildlife management organization, who discussed his experiences using both contraceptives and lethal removal techniques to curtail deer overpopulation.
Next to speak was Ethan Pierce, Deer Management Program Coordinator for the Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership and the Mohonk Preserve, who stressed that although each situation needs to be analyzed on an individual basis, selective hunting is probably the only viable method to control a piece of land the size of Vassar’s Farm and Ecological Preserve.
Allen Rutberg, Research Assistant Professor of Environmental and Population Health at Tufts University and a former professor at Vassar, detailed his experiences with researching deer immunocontraception—a technique by which deer are individually captured and sterilized before being sent back into the wild. However, said, Rutberg, “The biggest obstacles are not scientific. They’re political and regulatory.”
The final panelist, Raymond Winchcombe of the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies, told the audience about his experience running a program by which hunters are screened and trained before they come to the preserve to thin out the deer herd. Winchcombe stressed that, “not all hunting is equal, and certainly not equally effective.” Under the system that Winchcombe employs at the Cary Institute, select hunters are invited and only those that are effective in selectively killing adult females are invited back for the next season.
Following the speakers, a lively question-and-answer session ensued, first touching on scientific issues brought by the panelists and then moving on to the practical options for curtailing the deer population problem on Vassar property.
Each of the proposed measures—fencing, contraception and lethal removal—has financial and legal barriers that might prohibit successful implementation. Many of the most effective contraceptives have not yet been approved for use by the Environmental Protection Agency, and a New York State law prohibiting the operation of firearms within 500 feet of a residence or occupied building would severely limit the efficacy or even the possibility of a lethal removal operation.
The largest impediments to implementing a successful deer curtailment program, however, may be political. Senior Lecturer in Physics and former local politician Frank Challey noted that given the complexity of the situation, the funding challenges, and the legal and logistical obstacles to implementing an effective program, “whatever solution is reached must include the City and Town of Poughkeepsie as cooperative partners.”
However, during the current time of financial uncertainty, Vassar and the City and Town of Poughkeepsie are turning their attention toward seemingly more urgent matters. “This is a tough issue,” Rutberg added, “because aside from the people in this room, nobody cares. It’s nobody’s first priority right now.”
But not everyone in attendance was so cynical.
“If the [Poughkeepsie] community knew the College was serious about it,” said one man who identified himself as a resident of the Town of Poughkeepsie, “this whole lecture hall would be filled tonight.”
The Deer Management Subcommittee, many whom were in attendance Friday, will present their findings to the Vassar Farm Committee later this year, which is then expected to present their recommendation for a deer population control program to the Board of Trustees.
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