Argues Against Rehiring of White Buffalo
A brief work session of the East Hampton Village Board last Thursday saw a return visit by a critic of the village’s efforts to reduce the white-tail deer population through sterilization.
The village’s proposed 2016-17 budget, the subject of a hearing at its meeting on Friday, June 17, includes $50,000 for deer management, and officials will soon decide whether to renew a contract with White Buffalo, the Connecticut nonprofit that has conducted the sterilization program over the last two winters. White Buffalo’s efforts have drawn criticism from both animal rights and hunting advocates, who have called the program cruel and ineffective.
Terry O’Riordan, a director of the East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance, read a statement to the board reiterating his group’s opposition to any sterilization program. “Ineffective and not cost-effective” was his assessment.
The village’s deer management policy, Mr. O’Riordan pointed out, is guided by concerns including tick-borne diseases and deer-vehicle collisions. Sterilization, he said, will have no impact. “These drugged, surgically treated deer are left alone in the middle of a freezing cold night, in a stupor, to fend for themselves without any aftercare or meaningful oversight, and the survivors of this ordeal can still provide a blood meal for human disease-carrying ticks and mosquitoes, and can still injure, cripple, and kill humans via interactions with cyclists and motor vehicles.”
Sterilized deer also continue to ravage the understory of private lands, woods, forests, and sanctuaries, he said. Further, drugs administered to sterilize deer could compromise the meat, thus denying state residents of “their right to harvest an animal to feed themselves.”
A responsibly implemented hunt addresses all of the aforementioned concerns at no cost to a municipality, Mr. O’Riordan told the board.
Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., referring to the upcoming budget hearing, responded that the sterilization program “is a work in progress. This body is extremely sensitive to the issues, and we certainly understand and respect your remarks.”
Also last Thursday, the board accepted a $96,359 bid from Gatz Landscaping of Mattituck to implement a project that will improve the water quality of Hook Pond. The company is to create “bioswales” — drainage courses designed to trap pollutants and silt, both of which plague Hook and Town Ponds — at the Village Green and the green at the Hook Mill and North Cemetery. The cost, said Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, will be offset by a $46,000 grant from the Suffolk County Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program.
The board authorized $35,458 for Lombardo Associates, a consultant previously contracted to design water quality improvement projects for the Hook Pond remediation effort. The firm will perform additional analysis of sediment collected and share its findings related to its reuse on land. “This is a private-public partnership,” the mayor said, referring to a private-sector commitment of $200,000. On behalf of private property owners, the Group for the East End recently provided $25,000, Ms. Molinaro said Tuesday.
She also told the board that the fuel facility that the town and village will share is under construction on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton and scheduled to be operational in August. The municipalities were awarded $400,000 from the state’s Local Government Efficiency Grant Program for the facility’s construction, she said. While the village’s share of construction costs is under 30 percent, additional work is adding about $25,000 to the overall expense, slightly increasing village costs.