BILL NUMBER: S1171
SPONSOR: MATTERA
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
establishing a town of Huntington deer management pilot program; and
providing for the repeal of certain provisions upon expiration thereof
 
PURPOSE:
To establish a Town of Huntington deer management pilot program.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:.
Section 1: The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new
section 11-0522-a to establish a Town of Huntington deer management
pilot program. A certified nuisance wildlife specialist, who has been
certified by the department and at minimum requires a minimum level of
marksmanship certification appropriate to the firearm or hunting imple-
ment to be used, liability insurance coverage or other financial
arrangements approved by the department and reporting requirements.
The department may, after reviewing the town of Huntington's site
specific deer management plan, issue a certified nuisance wildlife
specialist a deer cull permit for use within boundaries of the Town of
Huntington.
Each cull-permit application shall at a minimum include requirements
for: a timeframe of use, a site-specific deer management plan, a
geographic description of the area for which the permit is being
requested, a written contract with the Town of Huntington, and requests
for any authorization pursuant to subdivisions of sections. Nothing in
this section shall be construed as requiring or obligating the depart-
ment to issue a permit to take deer when in its opinion the nuisance
will not be effectively abated.
Section 2: A certified nuisance wildlife specialist may provide activ-
ities which are in furtherance of the site-specific deer management
plan. The specialist may entice deer in the manner prohibited in subdi-
vision eight of this section provided that such activities are in furth-
erance of the site-specific deer management plan.
Section 6: A certified nuisance wildlife specialist may discharge a
firearm within five hundred feet of any dwelling houses, structures,
schools or playgrounds, provided the owners or lessees thereof have been
notified by certified mail of the date and time of the expected activ-
ity, and discharge a firearm within two hundred and fifty feet of any
dwelling houses, structures, schools or playgrounds, provided the owners
or lessees thereof have provided written consent.
Section 9: Identifies effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
As stated on the Deprtment of Environmental Conservation's website, deer
play vital roles in the natural and cultural environment of New York
State and are highly valued for their beauty and grace as well as the
utilitarian benefits they provide. However, the abundance of deer in
many parts of the state is causing an increased number of problems,
particularly in suburban and urban areas. In a paper on Deer Management
from Binghampton University, it was noted that there were dramatic
increases in deer numbers leading to overpopulation. In New York alone,
deer numbers rose from around 20,000 in the early 1900s to a current
population of over 1 million. The World Population Review currently has
the numbers in New York for 2024 listed at 1.2 million. Suffolk county
is estimated to have between 25,000 and 36,000 deer.
In the Town of Huntington, the over-abundance of deer is causing adverse
effects. As noted in a letter from November 2016 from the Mayor of the
Incorporated Village of Lloyd Harbor to its residents, the explosion cf
the deer population is of the. utmost concern". In a Village Deer Survey
where approximately 33% of the residents responded:63% reported daily
sightings of deer, 95% reported property damage due to the deer popu-
lation, there were 81 reports of tick-borne illnesses and 24% reported
deer-vehicle collisions within the preceding five years.
Based on insurance claims, State Farm estimates that there are over
70,000 deer-vehicle collisions annually in New York and that nationally
the average property-damage cost per collision is over $4,000. Losses
are not limited to property;. in 2015 (the most recent year for which
data is available) 238 people were killed in the U.S. due to vehicles
striking or attempting to avoid an animal, many of which were most like-
ly deer.
Additionally, deer browsing on ornamental trees, shrubbery, and gardens
in suburban and residential financially impacts homeowners. Wildlife
damages incurred by metropolitan residents in the U.S. have been esti-
mated at $4.5 billion annually. This is in addition to spending billions
of dollars and thousands of hours trying to solve or prevent the prob-
lem.
This bill will help to mitigate these rising problems by reducing the
number of deer through the establishment of a Town of Huntington deer
management pilot program and implemented by the NYSDEC. By using a
certified nuisance wildlife specialist with a cull permit the reduction
in the number of deer in the area will be done in a safe and profes-
sional manner.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024 Passed the Senate
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To Be Determined
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law and shall expire and be deemed
repealed three years after such date; provided that the amendments to
subdivision 3 of section 11-505, subdivision 2 of section 11-0931 of the
environmental conservation law made by sections two, four, and six of
this act shall be subject to the expiration and reversion of such
provisions pursuant to section six of chapter 683 of the laws of 2023
and section six of chapter 704 of the laws of 2023, when upon such date
the provisions of sections, three, five, and seven of this act shall
take effect.