A lawsuit has been filed against Fire Island National Seashore officials to stop a culling operation to reduce the deer population on the seashore located in New York state.

The Animal Welfare Institute and Wildlife Preserves, Inc. filed the lawsuit Fire Island Superintendent K. Christopher Soller and the National Park Service. It alleges that, by implementing a wildlife management plan that authorizes the killing of white-tailed deer on the national seashore, the superintendent and Park Service have broken federal law and violated property rights.

According to the complaint, authorizing the killing of deer within the national seashore by sharpshooting, public hunting, and capture and euthanasia violates the following:

* Deed Restrictions. In June 1955, Wildlife Preserves, Inc., transferred ownership of multiple areas—known as the WP Tracts—to nonprofit Sunken Forest Preserve, Inc. This “1955 Deed” stated that the WP Tracts must be maintained in their natural state and used as a wildlife sanctuary.

* In 1966, Sunken Forest Preserve transferred the WP Tracts to the National Park Service for inclusion in the seashore. This “1966 Deed” contained the same deed restrictions as the 1955 Deed, stipulating that these donated properties should “be maintained in their natural state and operated solely as a sanctuary and preserve for the maintenance of wild life, and its natural habitat, undisturbed by hunting or any other activities that might adversely affect the environment or the flora or fauna of said premises.”

* The culling of deer within the WP Tracts and other actions authorized by the NPS’s plan thus violates the deed restrictions. According to the deeds, a violation of this nature triggers an immediate reversion of the WP Tracts to Wildlife Preserves’ ownership.

* The National Environmental Protection Act. Under NEPA, governmental agencies—like the NPS—are required to take a “hard look” at the environmental impacts of any major federal action and consider reasonable and feasible alternatives to its proposed action, including a no action alternative. Failing to take a “hard look” or to consider reasonable alternatives to lethal deer population control violates NEPA.

“The National Park Service’s decision to allow the slaughter of hundreds of deer blatantly violates the deed restrictions for this land, which require that it be kept as a wildlife sanctuary,” said Tara Zuardo, wildlife attorney with the Animal Welfare Institute. “The agency’s haphazard culling of deer is an outright breach of the law and a waste of tax dollars.”

“The NPS has admitted that the restrictions in the 1955 and 1966 deeds are valid and applicable to the WP Tracts,” said Catherine Pastrikos Kelly of Meyner and Landis LLP and counsel to the plaintiffs. “Nonetheless, the NPS has implemented the killing of white-tailed deer on the WP Tracts, among other actions, which we believe plainly violate the deed restrictions. We are grateful to the local Fire Island residents and the Fire Island Wildlife Foundation, Inc. for their initial public outcry in response to the NPS’s plan and for their support of this action."

The Park Service at Fire Island followed the NEPA process when it adopted a white-tailed deer management plan in April 2016 after four years of study, public comment, and review. Under that plan, the Park Service moved to use fencing, public education, and culling to reduce the population to roughly 20-25 deer per square mile.