Oneonta’s Deer Management Task Force has a new campaign discouraging residents from feeding the deer, which has negative consequences for both the animals and the community.
Deer have adapted to survive even the coldest upstate winters and don’t need supplemental food from people. According to the National Deer Association’s website, deer “survive winter on the dormant buds and twigs of woody plants … Introducing new foods in the middle of winter, especially in high quantities all of a sudden, can actually be more harmful to deer than not feeding them at all.”
It’s an especially important reminder during March, which are the 30 most critical days for winter deer survival, the website stated.
“Research at the University of New Hampshire showed that a healthy deer begins winter with a 90-day fat supply,” the website stated. “This ticking clock begins winding down in March and is the reason why weather patterns in that month often play the biggest role in deer survival.”
Feeding deer in winter can actually kill them. In 2015, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department found 12 deer that likely died from eating human-provided food they could not digest.
It’s also illegal to feed wild deer, as well as moose, in New York state.
“Feeding of white-tailed deer causes unnatural concentrations near the food source, which can lead to ecological damage, damage to property, and an increased risk of transmission of disease between deer,” according to the DEC website.
Cecelia Walsh-Russo, D-Second Ward, raised the issue at the Common Council’s Quality of Life and Infrastructure Committee meeting Monday, March 24.
She said she received a co-signed letter from “multiple residents in our neighborhood.”
“They’re very concerned about what they see as kind of a plethora of neighbors feeding deer,” Walsh-Russo said. “They really succinctly brought up all the problems with that, in terms of both the deer and the community. I wanted to pose to the Deer Management Task Force the possibility of creating some kind of public campaign around raising awareness for not feeding deer, and that feeding deer has all these problems and brings with it some real concerns.”
Task force member Sandra Bright said that she created a poster discouraging feeding deer that has been posted around the Wilber Park pavilions.
Susan Lettis, the city’s volunteer deer management plan coordinator, said that other existing educational efforts include news stories and a pollinator garden created to help educate the community about pollinators and deer-resistant plantings.
Other ideas included using social media, local media and school programs to spread the message.
She said that while the state Department of Environmental Conservation follows up on complaints to that agency many people don’t like the feeling of telling on a neighbor. The DEC’s follow-up process for complaints usually involves a warning for the first offense and then escalates to stricter action, she said.
The city launched an online reporting system to track local interactions with deer one year ago. According to the data, provided by the city to The Daily Star last week through a Freedom of Information Law request, 91 people submitted information about the deer in Oneonta, with only a few flippant responses, since the tool launched.
Close to 80% of respondents reported daily sightings of deer in their yards. Many reported deer eating flowers, shrubs, gardens and even deer-resistant plants, jumping fences and leaving feces behind.
The deer also seem to be have lost their fear of people. Susan Ryder, a resident of Woodside Avenue, reported that last July she approached a deer yelling at it to leave a neighbor’s newly planted front yard flowers.
“It walked a few feet away, turned to face me, and refused to move,” she said. “It stomped its hooves, and all of its fur was raised on its back. I’ve never had a deer act this aggressively towards me. I was afraid of it so I left.”
Darragh Brady, also of Woodside Avenue, reported in March of last year that a deer broke its neck on a newly installed 8-foot deer fence.
Laura Kitissou, a resident of Suncrest Terrace, reported in August of last year that she wanted to grow vegetables. but the cost of fencing was prohibitive.
“They eat everything in their path,” Kitissou said. “It’s concerning because nothing can grow except invasive plants. When the older trees around start to die, there will be no young trees to take their place because the deer eat all of the saplings … Also it’s depressing to drive around town and not see any gardens or flowers at people’s homes because the deer eat them all.”
Only a few of the the incidents or observations were reported to law enforcement or any other authority, according to the data.
To report a suspected environmental conservation law violation, such as feeding deer, to DEC, call 1-844-332-3267.