Hunters line up for chance to hunt deer at EPCAL

About 80 people showed up at Town Hall Monday night to secure a slot for gun hunting this deer season in Riverhead.

Bowhunting is permitted in Suffolk county between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, and gun hunters usually have to travel upstate to hunt by their preferred method. Riverhead’s lottery was revived two years ago in response to a proliferation of deer in the area, according to Councilman George Gabrielsen, who sits on the town’s Wildlife Management Committee.

“It’s been really successful,” Gabrielsen said of the program.

His brother, Tom, also sits on the committee.

“Four or five years ago it was at around 600,” Tom Gabrielsen said of Riverhead’s deer population. “There’s not enough food in their area. You could see their ribs. Twelve years ago they were so undernourished I saw they were eating pine branches. I never seen that before.”

The committee has found it’s easiest to control the population by bringing it down to a low of about 150 and then letting it grow reasonably from there, Tom Gabrielsen said. The population is determined by forming a line of people who move through wild areas and count the deer as they pass.

The lottery guarantees a slot for one of 10 sections in the Enterprise Park at Calverton and one 32-acre parcel on Sound Avenue in Baiting Hollow. Gun hunting is permitted weekdays only, except for Wednesdays.

Councilman Gabrielsen said the committee voted down a proposal to use federal sharpshooters to cull the deer population like Southold Town is doing. That would have cost Riverhead taxpayers $25,000 for food, lodging and other expenses.

“We got a regular militia here with all these guys. We don’t need those guys,” he said.

Resident Tom Najdzion said the program enables him to stay closer to home for a hunt, which netted him a doe last year.

“It’s difficult to hunt when you just do rifle or shotgun – it’s either this or upstate,” he said.

RiverheadLOCAL photo by Micah Danney