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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBoard Resolution - Increased Sterilization - 11-20-12 1st adopted.pdfDRAFT PROPOSED RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Special Board Meeting, November 20, 2012 Whereas, the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of the Village of Cayuga Heights (the “Village”) has undertaken the implementation of the Village’s deer management plan (the “DMP”); and Whereas, in order to undertake both the sterilization component and the culling component of the DMP, the Village sought the written consent of property owners to use their properties and the Village sent consent forms to all property owners in the Village; and Whereas, the owners of approximately ten percent of the parcels in the Village responded that they did not consent to use of their property for the culling of deer; and Whereas, in accordance with NYS Environmental Conservation Law Section 11- 0931(4), the discharge of a firearm within five hundred feet from a dwelling house is illegal without the consent of the owner of such house (except in specified circumstances, such as the authorized use by a police department); and Whereas, the Village identified the locations of the dwellings of the owners who did not provide consent to culling and measured a five hundred foot radius around each such dwelling, and although these property owners made up only approximately ten percent of all property owners in the Village, the dispersal of these properties throughout the Village resulted in the five hundred foot radius circles around such dwellings covering a majority of the area of the Village; and Whereas, as a consequence, only limited locations in the Village currently would be available as sites for the culling of deer; and Whereas, as a result of the Village’s analysis of the property owner responses and consultation with the Village’s experts, the Village has determined that the Village currently would not have an adequate number of feasible sites to cull deer in order for the culling component of the DMP to succeed; and Whereas, the Village has undertaken further consideration of other options for management of the excessive population of deer in the Village in accordance with the DMP, including the alternative of sterilization only as a deer population management alternative; and Whereas, in connection with undertaking the sterilization component of the DMP, the Village had received from the NYS DEC a License to Collect or Possess up to 60 female deer for the purpose of surgical sterilization (the “LCP”); and Whereas, the Village has consulted further with Dr. Paul Curtis (“Dr. Curtis”) of Cornell University, who had been providing consulting services to the Village regularly throughout the development and implementation of the DMP, and with Dr. Anthony DiNicola (“Dr. DiNicola”) of White Buffalo, Inc. (“WB”), the wildlife management firm that the Village has intended to contract with for implementation of the DMP; and Whereas, mobilization costs for the sterilization and culling will be a substantial component of the expense of this work, and significant costs advantages would accrue to the Village if more of the work could be completed immediately following one mobilization effort; and Whereas, given the Village’s collection of the foregoing information, and taking into account the information previously collected by the Village, as set forth in the SEQRA Findings Statement (the “Findings Statement”) and elsewhere in the SEQRA documentation for the DMP, the Village has determined to further consider the use at this time of sterilization only as a deer management tool; and Whereas, in order to proceed with this possibility, the Village contacted NYS DEC to request modification of the LCP to authorize the Village to capture a larger number of female deer for sterilization; and Whereas, in response to the Village’s request, on November 16, 2012, the NYS DEC issued to the Village a modification of the LCP that authorizes the Village to capture up to 145 female deer for sterilization; and Whereas, the most significant impacts considered and evaluated in the Findings Statement and the other SEQRA documentation for the DMP were (1) t he actual impact on the deer that would be euthanized in the culling component of the DMP and (2) the degree of public controversy related to the DMP; and Whereas, the inability of the Village currently to undertake the culling component of the DMP and sterilization of a larger number of deer instead will result in significantly less actual impact on the deer; and Whereas, the Village’s current inability to proceed with the culling component of the DMP substantially diminishes the public controversy concerning the DMP; and Whereas, the Village’s currently proceeding with implementation of the DMP in this manner does not result in any impacts that were not already considered and evaluated in the SEQRA process and largely eliminates the most significant impacts that had been identified in the SEQRA process. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights that the Village currently proceed with the implementation of the Village’s deer management plan by sterilization of a greater number of deer in accordance with the terms of the modified LCP issued by the NYS DEC to the Village.