A federal appellate court on Monday ruled in favor of Fire Island National Seashore’s plan to control the white-tailed deer population with hunters and euthanasia, upholding a lower court decision.
Officials at Fire Island National Seashore released a management plan in 2015 to address the impact of the deer, which are known to eat vegetation and carry tick-borne diseases. There are approximately 400 deer on Fire Island and 100 at the William Floyd Estate in Mastic Beach on a portion of the seashore on the mainland, according to the Fire Island National Seashore website.
The preferred management method calls for fencing and reducing the population to 20 to 25 deer per square mile, or about 220 on Fire Island and 24 at the estate, through sharpshooting, euthanasia and public hunting.