In the fall 2021 semester, ENST colleagues Prof. Catherine Cardelús and Prof. Andy Pattison co-taught ENST 389: Conservation Biology and Policy, a course focused on the problem of deer overabundance in the region around Colgate and Hamilton. Students presented their work at the end of the semester in two fora, including a community forum held at the Palace Theater in December.
The course led Cardelús, Pattison, and their students to revive Hamilton’s deer cull effort, which had been paused during the last two hunting seasons. Working with Colgate’s Upstate Institute, environmental studies faculty, and members of a local Deer Cull Working Group, they successfully organized a mini-cull, held Jan. 8–18, 2022. Six local cullers successfully harvested six deer across three sites on Colgate’s ski hill and Seven Oaks Golf Course. Four of those deer were taken by environmental economics major Ben Bohnenberger ’22, a student from ENST 389 who is an avid hunter and helped organize the mini-cull.