Many people are concerned with the overabundance of deer in our neighborhoods as well as the accompanying illnesses that can be attributed to bites from a deer tick. What has the village been doing to control the deer population in East Hampton?
Last year (2019) the village contracted with Woods & Waves Management to run a program such as they’ve been doing in our neighboring villages of Sagaponack and North Haven. This is a program that seeks to use currently allowed hunting under permit from the village and asks permission to hunt on large private and public properties within the Village. This is for bow hunting only and works under the current hunting regulations, only in a structured and controlled way.
Woods & Waves Management works with highly skilled and vetted bow hunters only. Since this is a program that is already in place in neighboring villages we’ve been able to observe the results of their work and both municipalities have seen a significant reduction in their deer populations.
We believe that within a few years we will see similar results in our village. Please be assured that the Nature Trail is not open for hunting of any kind and this program works fully within the confines of the New York State hunting regulations. All meat is used for personal use or donated to food pantries.
The well-being of our residents is of highest importance to us. We live here and
understand residents’ concerns! By controlling the deer population we can control the incidence of diseases such as Lyme and Babeseosis in a humane manner and keep our ecology healthy for the protection of our other indigenous flora and fauna. We will be receiving reports from Woods & Waves Management and will closely monitor the results over the next few years to see what kind of an impact the program has had.
