Bristol has a deer problem, and the various ways to deal with all have their own set of drawbacks.

That was the message delivered to the Town Council at their Wednesday, Aug. 24 meeting by Dylan Ferreira, the wildlife biologist in charge of the Deer Project for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) Division of Fish and Wildlife. Ferreira manages the state deer population, defining goals and one of his primary goals is reducing human-deer conflicts, including vehicle collisions, exposure to Lyme disease, and property damage.

His office gets their information from accident reports, the Department of Health, and outreach from residents regarding property damage.
According to Ferreira, Bristol’s deer are above their “cultural carrying capacity.”

“That’s regardless of how many the landscape can support,” he said. “Vehicle collisions are higher than they should be…Tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease are a big issue…and then property damage. That's one of the things I get the most phone calls about.”

Property damage, while a concern, is secondary to the very real public safety issues (and costs) associated with collisions and Lyme. Collisions cost on average, about $6,000 each time. In the past year alone there have been nearly 40 such collisions. That puts Bristol in the top 5 communities in the state, per square mile, for deer collisions.

The numbers are about the same for Bristol and Lyme disease. As of 2018 (the most recent available data set), according the the Department of Health, there were 39 cases of Lyme reported in Bristol, putting the town tied for 7th highest number of cases in the state. Overall, Bristol County has the second-highest rate per capita, after Washington County.

Bristol is deer-friendly
Relative to other RI communities, a primary reason we have such issues with deer in Bristol is the lack of hunting pressure on the population. State law requires a 200 foot buffer around dwellings for bow hunters and 500 feet for firearms, so in a populated town like Bristol, there aren’t too many places you can hunt legally and safely.

There's also very favorable deer habitat in Bristol, with plenty of food, water, and shelter, and very few predators. While coyotes may take down an occasional fawn, according to Ferreira, they are not a significant predator of adult deer.

“The most common and most effective way is going to be legal regulated hunting,” said Ferreira.

Sharpshooting is also effective, but it's very expensive, and it can be controversial. Fertility control is expensive and ineffective, where you don't have a confined populations and they can come and go as they please. According to Ferreira, fencing can be effective for the individual homeowner, but it won’t necessarily address the more critical issues of collisions and tick-borne illness.

We do have legal, regulated hunting in Bristol, primarily bow hunting, which culls about 15 deer per season. The DEM also issues deer damage permits, which permits a farmer who has too many deer to harvest deer on their own property. The primary roadblock to hunting in Bristol right now is that there is a law against discharging firearms in town, which prevents a landowner from having someone come and reduce their deer on their property with a firearm.

If you are the owner or resident you can get a permit to take deer on your property, but according to Ferreira, a lot of the people who want to see deer removed aren't willing to do that on their own. Bow hunting is an option but, for a variety of reasons, is more difficult for many hunters and a less popular method.

The recommendation
“My recommendation is to amend (Bristol’s) no firearm discharge for legal regulated hunting,” said Ferreira. “The hunter must still abide by that five-hundred-foot buffer per state statue and this allows the individual landowner to make that decision. So if they're having a deer problem, and they feel that it's safe, and know somebody who can do it responsibly, it allows them to make that decision.”

He also recommended opening private town properties to regulated hunting, citing Beavertail State Park and the Nature Conservancy as public spaces that allow limited hunting.

The recommendation was met with some trepidation on the part of the Bristol Town Councilors. “We're a very highly populated town,” said Tim Sweeney. “So for me stray bullets and firearms just make me cringe, because I’d be very, very nervous.”

“How do we not go to the guns?” asked Nathan Calouro. “I guess my question is, is that the next step?”

“We would work with the town to come up with a list of rules and regulations for a property; it could be as simple as ‘follow state regulations’” said Ferreira.

Chief Lynch was amenable to exploring the idea further, under the oversight of his department.

“I would feel more secure sending Bristol officers to just check on everything, and to make sure there’s an extra layer of safety,” he said.
“Personally, I don't have a problem adopting the ordinances that you're proposing with the understanding that we have all the protocols in place going forward,” said Tony Teixeira.

A motion was made to refer the issue to the Town Administration and Police Chief for further review. As the conversation concluded, Town Administrator Steven Contente noted that there is bow hunting going on in Bristol right now.

“We would just also include some of the open space areas that the town owns,” he said. “That is quite close to the existing hunting policy. We don't want the public to be overly alarmed.”