Southold Town in Suffolk County, New York is going high-tech in the battle against a health crisis caused by the area’s booming deer population.
With efforts from private hunters, federal sharpshooters and a part-time wildlife manager, the town will now add a user-generated online map, highlighting deer hotspots around the town.
The technology was rolled out at the Town Board’s work session meeting on Tuesday morning, showing a number of blue dots scattered across the map, closely situated to the home of Jeff Sepenoski, of the town’s IT department.
“As we open it up to the public, these dots should be evenly distributed throughout the town,” he hopefully told the Suffolk Times.
The hope is that once enough residents begin adding their data to the map, animal management officials can then concentrate their efforts in areas where large populations of deer are reported. In addition to aiding officials in locating the animals, the town’s wildlife manager is hopeful the tool will help them in convincing private landowners to allow hunting on their land.
The tool is scheduled to be added to the town’s deer management committee website and then will be circulated to other local groups and organizations.