To animal lovers, they’re docile, beautiful creatures. To environmentalists, they’re a threat to the biodiversity of forests. And to hunters, deer provide both fun and food.

But this time of year, the animal lovers keep from the woods while the environmentalists monitor from afar — it’s hunting season.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Web site, there are more than 700,000 hunters in the state, making hunting the state’s most popular recreational sport. The state’s deer, black bears, beavers and birds attract more than 50,000 hunters from outside the state annually.

Hunting on campus

According to Sergeant Steve Yaple, manager of operations at the Office of Public Safety, student hunters can store their guns with Public Safety as long as the guns are legal in the state of New York.

“That means no automatic weapons like AK-47s and machine guns, but weapons like hunting rifles, crossbows and paintball guns are permissible,” he said.

Yaple said students can store knives and handguns with Public Safety, but they must have a license to possess a handgun.

According to Yaple, about a dozen students at the college leave their guns with Public Safety. Yaple said students have access to their firearms 24/7.

He said students couldn’t hunt in New York without a valid New York state hunting license. They can, however, leave their firearms at Public Safety even if they have a hunting license from another state.

Crowding the streets

The effects of the overpopulation can be seen on the road. According to the Office of Public Safety Incident Log, since 2007 there have been seven car accidents at the college involving deer.

Derek Osborne, senior investigator at the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office, said the sheriff’s office deals with at least five deer-related car accidents per week year-round. He said most of them occur on state Route 96B and Coddington Road.

“There’s not much we can do,” he said. “They’re wild animals. The best thing we can do is make people aware that there are a lot of deer this time of year and to look out on the road.”

According to the DEC, Cayuga Heights currently has more than 120 deer per square mile, double the amount of a normal-sized deer population.

Tim Gilmore, mayor of Cayuga Heights, a village of Ithaca, said overpopulation of deer has caused 25 deer-related car accidents in the village in 2008.

“This is a record number for us,” he said. “When you have so many deer, the chances of car accidents are greater.”

Gilmore said birth control measures were used in 1999 to control deer population, but the sterilization of female deer was too costly.

“In many cases, the end result required a second dose of the sterilization drug,” he said.  “There were some accomplishments, but most deer still remained fertile, and the method was time-consuming and impractical.”

David Riehlman, wildlife biologist for the DEC, said efforts such as controlling the amount of licensed hunters have been made in the state.

“In units where we want the population [of deer] to be reduced, we increase permit numbers,” Riehlman said. “Where numbers are stable, we try and keep the permit numbers stable.”

Environmental effects

Susan Swensen, chair of the biology department at the college, said efforts to control deer population should be made because overpopulation of deer affects the environment. She said when deer selectively eat some plants instead of others, they decrease the diversity of species in the forests.

“This will result in a very sparse-looking forest without any new seedling recruitments,” she said. “The only thing that will be left is huge, old trees that the deer can’t feed on.”

Swensen also said because of the expensive costs of birth control measures, hunting is the most effective way to control overpopulation.

“Cayuga Heights has made some efforts in looking at birth control measures for females,” she said. “But it’s a really expensive option, and so ultimately I think that reducing the population by hunting is probably the most expedient way to deal with it.”

Continual debate

Recreational hunting has also divided the community and college about animal rights issues versus a passion for the outdoors.

Sophomore Amanda Perlman, co-president and finances officer for the Vegetarian Community, said she and the student group are against hunting because it takes the life of an animal.

“I hear a lot about people building closed forests where hunters go and shoot animals and let them bleed out which they claim is supposed to help them save the meat,” she said. “It is actually extremely painful for the animal.”  

She said she understood that hunting might be helpful to the environment.

“It’s definitely more sustainable for the environment [to hunt],” Perlman said.  “At least the animal is in a more natural setting and can live a much better life than if it were in a huge meat factory plant.”

Freshman Jacob Clark said he has hunted for most of his life but is hesitant to start hunting in Ithaca because of all the people that engage in outdoor recreational activities. He said hunting would be difficult because of popular activities like hiking and biking that so many people in Ithaca do.

Clark said he does not hunt for environmental purposes. Mostly, he just likes to get out into the wilderness.

“I have a great passion for the outdoors,” Clark said. “There’s something very cool about being out there and getting back to your roots, back to the days when man really had to go out and survive.”