Following the example of Westchester County, Cornwall, New York is currently experiencing its first bow hunt in the town and village. This decision came about after years of discussion and activism on the part of Emily Thomas. I have had the privilege of meeting and keeping in touch with Ms. Thomas following my first summer in Cornwall. I spoke with her about the events leading up to this first bow-hunting season.

Ms. Thomas was raised to care about food and the land. She has been a member of the Grail for about twenty years. A couple years ago, she began to notice that the flowers and plants that she had planted and loved seeing outside were gone. “I began asking around and someone mentioned to me that it was due to deer”, stated Ms. Thomas. In April of 2007, she used posters and announcements to gather people of the community together for a meeting entitled, “Deer or Trees”. The meeting, consisting of about 45 interested people and two deer specialists, was held at the Grail. Each person discussed why they had come to the meeting. “Some love deer and some love the environment and their gardens”. After this successful first meeting, Ms. Thomas then decided that the next step was to do something about the deer problem.

The Cornwall Deer Task Force, DTC, was formed from people who attended this first meeting and came together with the communication of Emily Thomas. Two men from the area’s hunting club, a wife, a retired history teacher, and a landowner composed the initial skeleton of the DTC. The DTC held another meeting to get dialogue started as to ways to manage the deer population. “People didn’t want to talk about it, they wanted something done”, remembered Ms. Thomas. At this second meeting, there were hunters, people who do not hunt but agree with it, those who just want the deer dealt with and do not want to know how, and people who love deer and do not want any harm to come to them. The DTC then gained members who had strong opinions about one type of deer management technique that would not work in the area, did not want to discuss other management strategies, and left the DTC soon thereafter. More meetings were held and Emily Thomas extensively researched possible deer management plans. Finally, the addition of a lawyer and the contact of a police chief in charge of deer hunting in another county were what the DTC needed to push its management discussion into legislative action.

The village of Cornwall had an ordinance for no firearms but the town did not. This was one of the main reasons that the DTC decided that bow hunting would be the best deer management option in the area. All New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, laws and regulations are in effect. The bow hunting is taking place on okayed private land in 10 areas, each having a hunt captain. There are 30 certified archers who are active in this bow hunt. Some rules for the bow hunting are: A mature doe must be taken first, archers must log in and out with their land manager and inform him or her of any success, all arrows of a bow hunter are identifiable, and all arrows shot must be retrieved. The bow hunting began in the village and town of Cornwall on October 19th and is still underway. 50 permits were given initially and as of last week, 22 deer were killed.