Jamestown City Council’s work session on April 13, 2026
The issue of deer over-population in the City of Jamestown has been brought up to City Council once again.
Grant Briggs of Woodlawn Avenue told the Public Safety Committee that the deer are out of hand in his neighborhood, “I know there’s no hunting in Jamestown, so they just keep the herd gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I had 17 deer in my side yard the other day. I’ve got a bank full of juniper out in front of the house, about 100 foot long. It’s gone. They ate every bit of it. Something’s got to be done.”
Public Safety Committee Chair Tony Dolce, addressing other council members during the full work session, said it’s up to them if they want to tackle the issue again, “We met several times with Dec we’ve had community meetings, and there was a plan on the table a few years ago that did not pass for a few reasons. And again, it’s a touchy issue. There’s people, obviously, numbers a lot of deer, they can be a nuisance. But there are also a lot of people who are concerned about having any type of something within the city limits for other reasons.”
In September 2021, Council voted down a proposal 2 to 7 that would have allowed 8 bow hunters to receive licenses with the two sites for hunting limited to Jones Memorial Park and the wooded area behind the Allen Park Ice Rink.
In October 2022, then Council members at large Randy Daversa and Jeff Russell along with Council members Andrew Faulkner and Brent Sheldon were supposed to have a formal meeting on the issue, but there was no follow-up by that group back to Council.
In May 2024, it was announced that then Council member Joe Paterniti would chair the re-formed Deer Management Committee and be joined by Council members Bill Reynolds and Andrew Faulkner. No action came out of that committee.
Mayor Kim Ecklund said the State Department of Environmental Conservation is looking at changing hunting regulations, “They understand that there is a mass overpopulation of does. So, they are proposing changing the number of kills hunters are allowed to take during the season. They have changed the season dates, which will help outside the areas. And to be honest with you, a lot of us that live on the outside, they (deer) come from the outside.”
Under current State regulations, hunters can only have two Deer Management Permits (DMPs) transferred to them from other hunters. The proposed regulations would allow hunters to have an unlimited number of DMPs transferred to them from other hunters.
Another change would expand the nine-day season for antlerless deer in mid-September to 10 days.
Another proposed regulation is to have hunters harvest and report an antlerless deer before receiving a tag to harvest a second antlered deer. To accommodate this, DEC is proposing to reclassify the current Regular Season Deer Tag as an “Antlered Deer Tag” that could be used during all deer seasons with appropriate license privileges. All hunters would receive this first Antlered Deer Tag upon hunting license purchase.
The DEC is accepting comments on the proposed regulations through May 17. Comments can be to wildliferegs@dec.ny.gov (subject: “Antlerless Deer Hunting”) or to: NYSDEC, Attn: Jeremy Hurst, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4754.
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