After years of debating methods to address deer overpopulation at Binghamton University, action will be taken next week.

Bowhunters will enter the campus Nature Preserve on Sunday for a controlled bowhunt, a pilot program announced by the school and recommended by the Committee on the University Environment.

From 5 a.m. to noon Sunday through Tuesday, the Nature Preserve will be closed while selected bowhunters exercise a controlled hunt killing up to 50 deer.

Bowhunters submitted applications to the New York State University at Binghamton Police chief and were interviewed before being selected for the program. If successful, the application process will be open to more members of the community. New York State University at Binghamton Police will cordon off entrances and exits of the Nature Preserve during the hunt to stop anyone from entering the area.

Binghamton University's fall semester exams concluded Friday, and residence halls were scheduled to close Saturday at 11 a.m., a time when the management plan indicates visibility is high and there are a minimum number of visitors in the Nature Preserve during winter break, thereby improving the safety of the program. The controlled hunt also takes place late in the final days of the legal bowhunting season.

"Compared to the use of firearms, archery hunting is less disruptive, and the limited range of arrows makes it a safer option," the plan reads.

(Read the Binghamton University deer plan below.)

How many deer is too many?

With almost no natural predators and no hunters to thin the herd, the deer overpopulation has changed Binghamton University's landscape, particularly in the Nature Preserve.

“There’s a bit of debate about how low you want the deer population to be,” said Dylan Horvath, Binghamton University's steward of natural resources. “It seems to be 10 to 15 deer per square mile if you have a healthy, balanced ecosystem. If you want the ecosystem to recover, it needs to be less — maybe eight per square mile.

More:Deer population booms, relatively tame on Binghamton University's campus

“Here we have less than a square mile of land, and there are 266 deer at least. Half of those are residents, and half of those go back and forth but might as well be residents. There are no borders for them.”

Across New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that there are 900,000 to 1 million white-tailed deer. That’s down from a peak of around 1.2 million in the early 2000s, when the state enacted new deer management policies, such as issuing more doe licenses to hunters.

Why a hunt hasn't happened before

In December 2011, BU was only a few days away from a deer cull during its winter break that would have killed 90 percent of the campus’ deer, estimated at the time to number around 100 total, according to Press & Sun-Bulletin archives. The DEC issued permits, and BU hired an outside company to implement the plan.

Objections and contentious public meetings ensued. A lawsuit from a nearby Vestal resident and an animal-rights group led to a New York Supreme Court ruling in January 2012 that stopped the cull until the university prepared an environmental impact statement. That same month, Harvey G. Stenger took the helm as BU’s seventh president, and he put the deer question on hold pending further review.

On Sunday, that changes, and if this pilot program proves successful, the school may choose to continue the program during future winter breaks.

A controlled hunt will be repeated each season that the school is given permission by the DEC, according to the plan. The deer population and its effects on the forest will be monitored, looking for the presence of new vegetation, and further action will be taken when necessary.

"The true indicator of population management success," reads the recommendation, "will be the recovery of forest understory, the presence of new tree seedlings and wildflowers."

Depending on the needs of local food banks, the harvested meat may be donated for distribution to feed hungry families. The Food Bank of the Southern Tier's Venison Donation Program has worked with the Venison Donation Coalition since 1999 to distribute about 413 tons of venison in New York, serving 3,308,568 meals to those in need.

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