The City of Rye’s Deer Management Committee (DMC), having spent the last months consulting with various experts in forest health, white tail deer, research techniques and state regulation, is beginning to advance its agenda at the Rye City Council.
All the initial work of the DMC is to do the scientific work to determine if there is a white tailed deer overpopulation, and if so, what the impacts are on forest health across Rye. This work takes a few parts:
- #1 Deer Density Count. A baseline white tailed deer count will be completed via drone. At the City Council meeting on January 27, 2026, DMC member and local animal rehabilitator Stephanie Gomez is scheduled to present the recommended drone surveyor, Versa Drone, and how they will use thermal imaging when conducting the study. The budgeted cost of $7,000 will be voted on as part of the council’s consent agenda.
- #2 Forest Health Assessment. The DMC is expected to recommend the City hire forest ecologist Dr. Danielle Begley-Miller of Forest Management Solutions in Suffern. Chair Ryan Fitzpatrick is expected to review the recommendation at the City Council meeting on February 11, 2026. Begley-Miller is expected to do a forest health assessment.
- #3 Documentarian (for forest health). This will come later, but the consensus is that forest health is the true indicator if deer are overpopulated, and if that is having negative impacts (see Cornell Professor Discusses Deer Overpopulation and Forest Health for good background). A documentarian looks at impacts over time to see if control or other measures are having a positive outcome.
What else readers need to know is this will be a multi year effort, not a “one and done”, to both monitor impacts and take the needed control measures. If the deer population needs control, the City is required to demonstrate this to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and apply for a deer damage permit, which allows the City to take measures to control the deer.
Rye’s Unfair Advantage
One of the great things about living in Rye is we are surrounded with many resources. It turns out this is the case even when we study the impact of white tail deer on forest health. The Rye Nature Center has been operating (and studying) various deer exclosures since 2006, which serve as a critical A/B test for the impacts of deer in the fenced vs unfenced areas over 20 years.
Evolutionary ecologist and professor Dr. Susan Kalisz, who presented to the DMC in December (see State DEC Outlines Deer Control Options for Rye), was asked to review the available research conducted on the Nature Center’s deer exclosures. She did this as a courtesy, concluding “In summary, excluding deer by fencing has had a positive effect on overstory tree recruitment, and number of native species/unit area. These results indicate that deer abundance is too high in the Rye Forest. Steps to reduce deer herd size or reduce these negative effects of deer are needed.”
Watch DMC meetings:
