Research

Administrative History

The Bureau of Wildlife, within the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), carries out the department's responsibilities relating to the protection, preservation, and when possible, restoration of wildlife populations to maintain the balance of ecological relationships in New York. In this series, the maintenance of deer populations is managed through the use of deer management units (DMUs), which are designated according to habitat similarity and analyzed by deer kill calculations. The DEC has the authority to issue the number of deer permits that has been deemed fit to properly manage regional deer herds, taking into account recreational opportunities, deer-vehicle collisions and other public safety issues, and the effect of overpopulation on other wildlife populations within the same ecosystem.