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Bristol allows bow hunting of deer on some land as part of RI’s push to reduce car-wildlife crashes
BRISTOL − State and town officials are encouraged by a program that has expanded deer hunting onto town-owned property in Bristol, saying it helped reduce the number of collisions between deer and cars in town.
The state Department of Environmental Management says it wants to increase such cooperative hunting agreements in other parts of the state to help reduce deer crashes in other cities and towns.
Collisions between cars and deer are common in Rhode Island, with the statewide number climbing from 1,285 in 2021 to 1,544 in 2022. The number fell in 2023 but was still high at 1,347, according to the DEM.
How many deer crashes has Bristol had?
Bristol has had among the highest rates of deer crashes and deer nuisance complaints in Rhode Island, according to the DEM. In that East Bay town, collisions between cars and deer had been “increasing steadily” since 2009 and hit a record 59 in 2022, according to the DEM. But the number dropped to 41 in 2023, the year hunting was expanded to some town properties.
“It appears to be working. As the hunting increased, the deer strikes decreased,” said Bristol Town Administrator Steven Contente.
The agreement between Bristol and the DEM opened four parcels of town property to hunting – only with bows – from September through January.
Through Jan. 7, hunters had killed 63 deer in Bristol, 37 of them on town land. Bristol’s deer harvest this season far outnumbered the 24 deer killed in 2022 and the 16 taken in 2021, according to the DEM.
“DEM aims to continue expanding cooperative hunting agreements throughout Rhode Island to effectively manage the deer population and hopes to see a reduction in deer-vehicle collisions across the state,” the agency said in a report.
Bristol is the first town that has reached a cooperative hunting agreement with the DEM, but the state agency has similar agreements in place with property owners such as The Nature Conservancy, local land trusts and the Providence Water Supply Board.
A deer crash ruins vacation plans
Bristol isn’t the only town that has a problem with deer crashes. In August, Amy Beckwith and her husband, David, were up early, driving from Little Compton to catch a flight to Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport, when a deer hit their car in Tiverton.
“It was stunning. I’ve never heard such a loud bang,” Amy Beckwith said.
The collision left their Volkswagen Golf station wagon with $8,000 in damage. The couple didn’t make their flight and still haven’t taken their planned trip to see family and friends in Cincinnati, Beckwith said. The airline reimbursed them, but the hotel didn’t.
In 2022, Tiverton ranked second in Rhode Island for deer crashes, with 106. South Kingstown had the most, 112.
Crashes aren’t the only problem caused by Rhode Island’s high deer population. In more than 40 years of farming, Skip Paul of Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton has felt increasing pressure from deer. Early on the deer would “occasionally come in and eat a little bit,” he said, but over time they’ve developed an appetite for “pretty much everything we grow.”
“The population is just out of control,” he said.
Paul recently spent about $90,000 to build 8-foot high fencing around two sections of the farm. Without the fencing, he estimates crop losses would be $5,000 to $10,000 per year.
Do other options work?
In the wake of her August crash, Beckwith wondered why the state doesn’t use measures like fertility control to reduce the deer population.
The DEM says hunting is the most practical method.
“Deer hunting is the most effective and economical option for managing deer populations, and is the primary management tool used by federal, state, and provincial wildlife agencies across North America,” said Dylan Ferreira, a principal wildlife biologist with the DEM’s division of fisheries and wildlife.
Other options, like relocating deer and using fertility control “are cost prohibitive and have limitations rendering them ineffective in most scenarios,” he said.
Is hunting on the decline?
Beckwith asked, “Hunting is in decline, is it not?”
The DEM acknowledged that hunting is “trending toward gradual decline” in Rhode Island and nationally. Rhode Island saw a slight resurgence in 2020 and 2021 as interest in outdoor activities increased with the onset of COVID, according to the DEM, but in 2022, the sale of resident hunting licenses in Rhode Island “decreased slightly” to 6,979.
Contente, the administrator in Bristol, acknowledged that the thought of killing deer can be distasteful, but he noted that deer suffer, too, when they get hit by cars.
“If we didn’t have a problem, we wouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “We have a problem.”