Deer cull set for Fire Island, William Floyd Estate

A government cull of the deer herds at William Floyd Estate in Mastic Beach and on National Park Service land on Fire Island is scheduled for this month and February, the agency said in a release Friday.

Park Service officials say the culls by “trained firearm experts,” which have been conducted since at least 2019, are part of an effort to preserve imperiled ecosystems on the barrier island and the historically significant landscape at the estate, which the agency administers, though some animal welfare groups have decried the practice as inhumane.

A swelling deer population endangers the globally rare Sunken Forest of maritime holly on Fire Island because deer consume seedlings and saplings faster than the ecosystems can regenerate.

Deer are found across New York, but state environmental officials have said population management on suburban Long Island presents a particular challenge. The state’s deer management plan, released in 2021, calls for expanded hunting across the region.

There are about 400 deer on Fire Island and 100 deer at the estate. The park service did not specify the total number to be killed. But the operation is intended to reduce population density of 50-300 deer per square mile on Fire Island and 60-70 on the estate to 20-25 deer per square mile in both locations, a level park service officials said has been shown to allow a “healthier, more diverse forest habitat which can support a healthy deer herd as well as other native wildlife.”

Last year, the cull took 59 deer from park service land on Fire Island and 53 from the estate. Meat from culls goes to local food banks.

Animal welfare groups have faulted park service officials for not fully exploring nonlethal means of deer population control.

The Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the United States declined to comment Friday. In 2021, after an earlier cull was announced, that agency told Newsday in an email that “it's necessary for NPS wildlife managers to take a larger role in bringing humane and effective fertility control tools to our national parks." 

The Animal Welfare Institute, an organization that has sued the park service over its deer management plan, did not comment. The Welfare Institute's suit is pending.

Park service officials say fertility control methods would take decades to work or have other serious drawbacks. One method, injecting female deer with the immunocontraceptive PZP, has not been approved as a tool for free-ranging deer populations in New York and can result in late pregnancies and behavioral changes.