Thank you for stating the facts here. I was going to make the exact same point. Hunting does one thing: make lots of healthy deer for hunters (well, it also makes fees for the govt). It is unethical for the County to serve as an advertising agency for hunters at the expense of our forests. And further, just so the public is educated about this point, deer do not contribute to the prevalence of Lyme disease. The black-legged tick is on 60 different animals, and a high rate of Lyme is more clearly associated with white-footed mice and their predators. So if people are concerned about reducing Lyme disease, forget about deer and allow a robust population of predators to exist (coyotes, foxes, etc). View Comment

When will the state agencies that oversee public land get out of bed with hunters? This land is funded by my taxes. 5% of the American public hunts. That is a tiny minority to warrant access to public lands to impale wildlife. How horrible for hikers to have to worry about camo'ed hunters and flying arrows. I'm surprised that liability issues alone would not prevail here. I was told by the Yonkers municipal animal shelter that they would not let people foster kittens because they were worried about "liability." Mamaroneck village would not let volunteers oil goose eggs on village property because of liability. Kittens and geese equal "liability?" Flying arrows are okay? These hunting programs do nothing but keep deer populations artificially high. Time for people to wake up. Next time they convene a citizen's committee, maybe they should put some actual citizens on it. View Comment

Try a fence? I used to have deer in my yard...didn't mind. They came a couple times a day and then left. People sometimes get freaked about deer in their yard b/c of Lyme disease. It is a misconception that deer lead to Lyme disease. 60 different animals carry the blacklegged tick---including mice. What you want in any environment to control Lyme is predators who eat the mice and small mammals. So let's hope people don't start "removing" the predators---coyote, fox, etc. They probably already are trapping and killing them. Another issue that affects the presence of important predators is people putting out rat poison---invariably this ends up in the food chain and hawks and other predators are affected. Just leave the deer alone. Stop the insane "deer management" which is only increasing the deer numbers. View Comment

It is good to hear that they are actually talking about the real issue that threatens our water: sewage. Usually, they just blame it on the geese. View Comment

When will people learn that hunting is what keeps the deer population high. The only thing hunting does is make sure there are plenty of healthy deer around for people to hunt the following year. Wake up, people! The county, who derives fees and-- indeed --depends upon hunters for some of their jobs, banks on people believing a simple-minded, intuitive argument about "deer management:" "killing them must reduce them." But, no. What killing does is interfere with nature's ability for the herd to self-regulate population. The incidence of twinning is much higher in hunted deer herds. When hunted, deer reproduce more. And then when the hunters temporarily "thin the herd" that just leaves more to eat for the other deer and they are "fruitful and multiply." Hunters, and their tax-sponsored advertising agency known as the County, have zero interest in reducing deer populations. By all means, if you want a skewed eco-system, a continually high population of deer, and a cruel, blood sport to invade your parks, then allow hunting. But if you want to join the rest of the intelligent, civilized human race...then reject this disingenuous plan. View Comment

"Over abundance of coyotes" sounds like a rallying cry for lethal management. The solution to living with coyotes is knowledge, not fear or killing. And I speak from experience, having lost a cat to coyotes. Beware of calling upon the federal government for advice. They are far from impartial and make a lot of money off of killing wildlife and hunting. The USDA Wildlife Services kills coyotes nationwide by setting disgusting steel leghold traps in residential areas, killing thousands of pets and endangered species "by accident." http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/28/4450678/the-killing-agency-wildlife-services.html Let's hope we can find a way to live peacefully with coyotes, as predators in the eco system perform a valuable function. View Comment

We all need to live within our means. View Comment

You must be joking. That won't help. Let's all cut down all of our trees and then what will we breathe? View Comment

Benedict, You can start with this editorial (while it is an editorial it has a number of jumping off points) http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Hunting-has-increased-deer-population-not-643259.php Sport hunting likes to focus on bucks. When they do a "deer mgmt plan" they basically have to give hunters an incentive to "earn a buck" by hunting a doe. One buck can impregnate a whole herd of females, so you can see how the math works with this and the finger can be pointed directly at hunting for large deer herds. Plus, when there is a lot of hunting the females tend to produce more fawns. Sudden drops in population generally leads to increased reproduction. Basically, hunting fees pay the salaries of the wildlife managers so they keep up these ineffective programs and preach hunting as the gospel truth. Hunters act like they favor keeping deer herds low, but the fact is they want high numbers. Some deer herds fit the criteria for deer birth control darting. Hastings NY is going to try that. Hopefully, the logistics of this will get better and that will prove to be a long term solution for other areas. View Comment

Who said we should do nothing? It is time we stopped buying into the party line that hunting controls deer population. Hunters WANT high populations of deer. The LAST thing any hunter wants is to have very low numbers of deer. When that happens the govt usually takes steps to increase the deer population. When you look at the disaster that is called "wildlife management" you can trace it all back to hunting and our culture/govt's support of this niche sport. Killing bucks only makes the deer population increase. Deer populations are managed for the purpose of keeping hunters happy. If the Wolf Conservatory wants deer meat, then let them go out and shoot deer for that purpose. But allowing a sport to dictate wildlife management is/has always been a disaster. View Comment

So he gets "probation." He duped the Scarsdale taxpayers for 15 years, had close access to children while being a drug addict, was a regular customer of a prostitution ring that was convicted of human trafficking, and tipped the pimp off to the investigation by blaming the "girls" (probably prompting severe beatings and/or rapes as retaliation) and he walks. He will probably be collecting a nice retirement plan courtesy of the taxpayers as well. View Comment

Did you ever stop to consider whether the "deer management program" actually REDUCES deer populations? It does not. In many cases it only makes populations grow. View Comment

It is a little late for egg oiling to be considered humane. Goslings are days away from hatching. The USDA should have gotten their act together and finished this all mid month. They make millions of dollars off of these contracts, and get millions more from taxpayers. Why couldn't they have oiled every egg in a reasonable time frame? View Comment

And Scarsdale comes in at #51. Disappointing. View Comment

Good for Hastings! Bow hunting is the cruelest way to die. I cannot imagine any civilized person thinking it is okay to impale a living thing with an arrow. It is time we begin to use science and intelligence to solve our problems, not crude cave-man tools. I hope Hastings sets an example for Westchester County parks---which use bow hunting to kill deer. View Comment

I have to respectfully disagree with Ms. Doornick about this. It would be nice to leave them alone, but the fact is that as their numbers increase so does the public's negative feelings towards them and hence this controversy over killing them. Egg-oiling is something that is used in conjunction with hazing (border collies to deter geese from certain areas) with great success. Greenwich has been using this nonlethal combination since 2006 and keeps the goose population stable and conflicts at a minimum. If we "just leave the geese alone" the sad reality is that they will be killed. View Comment

Good for them. Ethics aside, killing geese is ridiculous from a pragmatic perspective since a bunch of new geese replace the dead ones. Egg oiling is good for birth control. They have a machine to clean the fields. There are ways to chase the birds off of certain areas...this is life in Westchester County. Geese are a part of the landscape. If we can figure out how to clean their poop, and stabilize population growth with the birth control, that seems a reasonable way to go. Their sign says it all. If we can't figure out how to coexist with a bunch of geese, what hope is there for the planet. View Comment

what a gorgeous dog! View Comment

Bravo to the town government. I hope they will explore annual egg-oiling to keep the population in check. This consists of coating eggs with corn oil to prevent hatching. Totally non-toxic, and the town can enlist community volunteers to help with this. View Comment

It is time for the circus to move on. I would not bring my family to such an event. The wild animals, such as elephants and bears, are treated horribly, chained up, hit with whips and bullhooks, and deprived of a decent environment. No thanks. View Comment