Riverhead Opts Out of Sharpshooter Deer Solution

As controversy swirls over a proposed sharpshooter program to cull the swelling deer herd on the East End, Riverhead Town has opted out of the plan.

"We're trying to go down a slightly different path," Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said. "We've had great success with hunts at Enterprise Park at Calverton."

So sucessful, he said, that the deer herd has been drastically reduced. Next, Walter said the town plans to work with Legislator Al Krupski to open up the North Fork Preserve on Sound Avenue, as well as with New York State, to open up 700 acres in Wildwood State Park and a park in Jamesport for hunting, with the town's hunting committee coordinating efforts.

"If we can open up those very large tracts of land and reduce the herd in those areas, we'll wind up pretty much solving the problem," he said.
The town, he added, has a very active hunting community. "For us, it's not the lack of hunters, it's the areas."

And, Walter added, the town doesn't have $25,000 cost that each town has been asked to ante up to opt into the sharpshooter program. "If we don't have it, we don't spend it."