Spread the word
Conservation organizations, including NYSDEC, have failed to take leadership in addressing deer overpopulation. If you are concerned about this issue, start pounding the table and get involved. Reach out to your local land conservancies, regional DEC offices, State Parks, local representatives and the NYS Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation and tell them that they need to start taking leadership on this issue. Without legalizing the sale of wild venison there is no future for our forests.
Learn to hunt
The only way to sustainably reduce deer populations is to increase hunting. If you are a gardener, a birder or a native plant - or pollinator - lover you can learn to hunt and help protect and secure the food webs on which everything relies. For guidance on where to start, please contact us!
Build deer exclosures
Deer exclosures are easy and inexpensive to build. Within an exclosure, tree regeneration can once again flourish. Unfortunately, decades of deer overpopulation has eliminated the local seedbank of many understory plants, so don’t expect much native herbaceous understory to return. However, a deer exclosure offers the opportunity for active restoration of native understory biodiversity - just be careful to source bare root plants to avoid introducing Asian jumping worms!! For guidance on where to start, please contact us!
Help legalize the regulated sale of wild venison
The research shows that recreational hunting fails to adequately reduce deer populations - incentives are needed. In NY the sale of wild “game” species, including deer, is illegal. This must change if we want NY’s forests and natural lands to be resilient in the face of climate change. Please share the form letter linked below with your local representatives to voice your support of changing policy to increase the harvest of white-tail deer.