Some Staten Island residents are taking public safety into their own hands, posting deer crossing signs on roads because the local government has not. Since 2008, the number of deer in the borough has skyrocketed from just 24, to 763. As Roseanne Colletti reports, that’s posing a danger to drivers.
An explosion in the deer population on Staten Island has neighbors concerned about potential accidents and other dangerous run-ins.
A city Parks Department map shows that deer are gravitating to thickly wooded areas of Staten Island's Greenbelt, as well as parts of the South Shore. The Nutley family, who live just off the Greenbelt, say the deer cross through their backyard, as many as five or six at a time.
"They come quite often, and as you can see the wife's garden is devastated," said Brian Nutley, who installed a sign cautioning drivers to watch out for deer on busy Rockland Avenue near the front of their Egbertville home after he says he's had a few close calls.
One home video shows three deer milling near the woods in a Staten Island backyard, just another sign of the increasing number of the deer population.
"Every morning about 5 a.m., I see one over here," said Lila Rogers.
Steve Howard says he sees them mostly in the evening or at night, when it's hard to see, which makes him concerned about hitting one.
The explosion in the deer population -- from 24 in 2008 to nearly 800 in 2014, according to the Parks Department -- is being blamed on the lack of natural predators to buck the trend of growing numbers. Now there are concerns over environmental impact and accident potential.
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Nutley, who hunts himself, doesn't advocate controlling the population that way but says homemade signs aren't enough.
"If you hit a deer, never mind the monetary devastation, you could get killed," he said.
