The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has announced that deer permits for legal regulated hunting, are now on sale online and at local sales agents.

As of April, Bristol is one of the Rhode Island towns in which bow hunting will be permitted on some town properties. According to the Dylan Ferreira of the DEM, Bristol has one of the highest numbers of negative deer interactions, from motor vehicle collisions to rates of Lyme disease, among all towns in the state.

“I deal with a lot of constituents that call complaining about the deer issues here in Bristol, whether it be vehicle, collisions, or ticks,” said Ferreira in testimony before the Town Council back in April. “The way the deer population is managed in town is through legal regulated hunting on private property…You need written permission to hunt on private property or any property. So, in order to increase the harvest, to reduce the negative impacts associated with high deer populations, we wanted to open some of the town properties via a memorandum of understanding which would allow legal licensed hunters in Rhode Island to hunt those properties.”

The Council approved that Memorandum of Understanding.

Interested bow hunters may purchase licenses and deer tags, hunt within the designated season (September 15 to January 31), from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sundown. The DEM’s law enforcement division is tasked with making sure that these and all hunting regulations are followed. Visit DEM's Rhode Island Outdoors online system or find a vendor near you on DEM’s list of local sales agents to purchase licenses and tags.

There will be four approved locations: 100 acre woods, which is north of Tupelo St.; Skaters Pond, which is behind Seasons Market at Gooding Ave. and Metacom; behind the landfill, which would be accessed through a small parcel of town property on Tower Street; and the north side of Hopeworth Ave. behind the Veterans Home.

A hunter education course is required for new hunters and is offered as part of DFW's Hunter Education Program. To date, more than 40,000 people have completed a hunter safety course in Rhode Island, helping to reduce accidents in the state and elsewhere. A complete schedule is available of all upcoming hunter education programs.

Deer survey also open as of Tuesday
For the fourth year in a row, DEM is encouraging all members of the public to participate in a summer deer survey, which is a community science initiative designed to monitor deer during the summer months. All live deer sightings can be reported from Aug. 1 through Sept. 30.

This information is helpful in determining the number of fawns that survive after common causes of mortality such as predators, weather, and deer vehicle collisions are considered. This data will help the DEM Division of Fish & Wildlife (DFW) obtain fawn-to-doe ratios and an index of reproductive rates through time, informing sustainable management of the state's deer population.

To participate in this year's survey, the public can submit their reports via Survey123, an online survey platform that also hosts DFW's Herp Observer and Wild Turkey Brood Survey. The Survey123 smartphone app allows users to record observations on the go. Participants will need to download the Survey123 app prior to opening the survey link. Observations also can be submitted on a computer. To report observations via Survey123, please use the following link on your smartphone or computer: https://arcg.is/1SCKWi0.

Tips to Remember during the Deer Survey:

Record deer observed from dawn to dusk (when headlights are not used for driving); record all deer you see; do not include multiple observations if you are sure the same deer is being seen repeatedly; do not include trail camera counts in your observations; fawns don't always have spots in September — they have a short snout compared with adults.

Hunting has a long tradition in Rhode Island, and hunters and anglers purchase around 70,000 licenses, permits, stamps, and tags each year and contribute more than $235 million to the economy. Revenue generated from license and permit sales support Rhode Island fish and wildlife conservation programs, and is leveraged to match federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program dollars that support outdoor recreational opportunities for fishing, hunting, and boating in Rhode Island.