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Home My WebLink AboutCB Minutes 2018-01-011 Deer Management Committee Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 5:30pm Meeting Notes Committee Members: Bill Goodman, Pamela Bleiwas, Eric Levine, Lindsay Dombroskie, Lisa Ferguson, Linda Woodard Staff: Mike Smith Future Meeting Schedule:  3rd Tuesday of the month at 5:30pm (March 20th, April 17th, May 15th)  No meeting in February Staff Support:  Yes, Mike Smith from Planning Department should continue to attend future meetings Update from Linda Woodard on current Cayuga Heights deer management activities:  Paul Curtis from Cornell has been doing deer counts for the Village  They started at around 125 deer per square mile and are down to 38 deer per square mile  They hire White Buffalo Inc. to do the culling using crossbows over baited sites  There are limited sites available in the Village, and they would like to find new ones  One new restriction that eliminated several sites, NYSDEC is enforcing that bait cannot be located within 300 feet of a road Initial thoughts on Conservation Board report:  Bill – interested in the ecosystem impact & forest regeneration  Linda – mentioned deer from Cayuga Heights goes to a food bank donation  Lisa – talked about the farming impact, including a parasite that deer can pass to goats/sheep/etc. She has tried, but wasn’t able to get DDP permits on her own  Eric – interested in all the issues (vegetation, accidents, ticks) and feels it is a low cost proposal. We already have hunting taking place in the Town, and most of the meat would be donated.  Pam – report thin on documenting the problem in the Town; need hard data. We need widespread public support and liked hearing about Lisa’s farming issues. Questions committee members would like to see addressed:  More data on ticks and car accidents in the Town; deer population data; vegetation regeneration information for the Town  Linda said Paul Curtis does population studies and Peter Marks has information on regeneration in this area; both might be good resources  How was the boundary for the DEC Deer Management Focus Area determined? Any data available for how that is working?  Lyme disease is also a problem for pets; do any vets have local data?  Cornell might have data on the parasite (impact, frequency, etc.) Lisa mentioned  Gather stories/documentation from farmers on impacts in the Town ‐ damage done and costs involved (constructing deer fences) – Mike and Bill will bring this up at next week’s Agriculture Committee meeting 2  Bill will gather newspaper articles and information about communities with deer management programs around the Syracuse area Agenda topics for future meetings:  Invite a representative from the City of Ithaca to a future meeting (March)  Invite Paul Curtis from Cornell to a future meeting (March)  Invite a DEC representative to a future meeting  Develop a strategy for public outreach and discuss when to invite comments from public  Discuss potential bait locations throughout the Town – maybe planning for more sites than initially needed to provide ability to move/alternate sites as needed – how do we locate sites in the Town (closer to the City, on the outside edge of Town, focus on one hill, etc.)  Invite Martin Petrovic from the Village of Trumansburg to a future meeting (April)  Lindsay suggested members take a look at the Community Deer Advisor website (https://deeradvisor.dnr.cornell.edu/) including the free online course titled “Creating a Community‐Based Deer Management Plan”. 1 Deer Management Committee Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 5:30pm Meeting Notes Committee Members: Bill Goodman, Lindsay Dombroskie, Eric Levine, Pam Bleiwas, Linda Woodard, Lisa Ferguson Staff: Mike Smith Guests: Martin Kelly (Town resident, hunting safety instructor), Ann Sullivan (City of Ithaca resident) 1. Introductions 2. Next Meeting:  Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 17th at 5:30pm in the Aurora Conference Room  Bill will invite Bernd Blossey (Cornell University, Department of Natural Resources), Martin Petrovic (Mayor, Village of Trumansburg), and Dan Cogan (Chief of Staff, City of Ithaca) to the April meeting 3. Handouts:  Mike had distributed three items by email  The first item is the map Mike created showing vehicle collisions with deer. The data was obtained from ITCTC for the years 2012 – 2016. The maps show the location by year, with a total of 439 collisions during the 5 year period.  The second item is the responses Mike received from Town farmers. Mike emailed all farmers that he has email contact for, asking if they would share their experiences with deer (hunting, costs, impacts, etc.). 7 responses were received. The Committee asked if would be possible to try and get responses from a couple of the large crop farmers? Mike and Bill will mention it at the Ag Committee meeting next week.  The third item is a collection of newspaper articles from the Syracuse area about existing community deer programs. All articles were from the past year. The Committee was surprised to see that most of the programs up there are contracting with USDA sharpshooters to remove deer instead of archers.  Bill raised the question of where to focus the culling. Is along the City border best? Lindsay thought throughout Town might be better so the deer have less “safe” areas. Eric thought maybe around the outside border of the Town, to limit more coming into the Town. Bill said this is one of the questions for Bernd Blossey next month.  Ann mentioned on the City side, residents have been talking more about the deer problems. She has seen it show up more on the neighbor listserves. She is concerned about habitat destruction and the impacts on other animals. Linda mentioned that in Cayuga Heights she is getting positive feedback from their program and residents are asking to make sure it continues. Bill said to have an impact, we need to coordinate with the City, and it would be nice if culling locations could occur in the City or on City land.  Costs were mentioned in some of the Syracuse articles to run those programs. Linda said Cayuga Heights will spend approximately $50,000 this year on the program, which includes contracting with White Buffalo and to have Paul Curtis conduct deer counts. 2  Lindsay asked if there are bow clubs in the area, and maybe they would be a place to start for volunteers. Martin said there are local clubs and he knows many archers that would be interested in volunteering.  Pam feels that public outreach is very important before the Committee goes too far. Eric asked at what point the full Town Board will be involved again? Bill thought the Committee needed a proposal (site locations, public input, etc.) to go back to the Town Board with. Pam also felt it would be helpful to know how the City is feeling before going back to the Town Board.  Pam would like to hear from more of the farmers, especially the larger crops farmers that didn’t respond to Mike’s email. She felt the vehicle collision map helped.  Ann mentioned another concern being ticks and Lyme disease. Bill and Lindsay mentioned that the Conservation Board report included data on this. The report is available on the Town Website on the Conservation Board page. Martin mentioned that he has had Lyme disease twice, but neither was officially reported by his doctor. He feels Lyme disease is under reported.  Lisa offered to help get information from additional farmers, possibly make some visits if necessary. 4. Plans for Public Outreach:  This Committee would host the public meeting, not at a full Town Board meeting.  The public event would tentatively be held on Tuesday, May 22nd. The Committee could meet at 5:30pm if needed, then open it to the public at 6:30pm.  A press release will be prepared for the public event and hopefully at least the Ithaca Times and Ithaca Voice will publish something. Information will also be placed on the Town website. All press releases and notices should reference the Conservation Board report.  Pam hopes the public meeting will mostly be a listening session where the public can share their stories.  Bill will plan to start the meeting with a brief history. Lindsay asked about how the Committee will address questions from the public. Bill and other Committee members don’t want to get into a back and forth with the public, but keep it to mostly listening to the public.  The Committee will continue to plan the public meeting at the April Committee meeting. Meeting ended at 6:54pm