Op Ed: Introduce Coyotes to the Nature Preserve

There are too many deer in the nature preserve. The University itself has estimated that there are 500 to 600 times as many deer in the nature preserve as is ecologically sustainable.¹

This is a major problem, as the deer are overconsuming plant life in the nature preserve, decimating a number of species native to the area, which because ecology is complicated has a whole host of knock on effects that I don’t really understand because I’m not an ecologist. You’ll probably meet one on campus, ask them about it. 

The cause of this problem is straightforward. The university management claims (see below) that there are currently no predators in the nature preserve, because they need all the Long Island parents to feel safe sending their sweet little babies to the dangerous forest of upstate. If this were true, it would be a major problem. If the deer can eat as much as they want and nothing ever eats them, then they just keep reproducing over and over again until all the food is gone, which would spell the end of the nature preserve entirely. And if that happens, how would the university convince downstaters that living in a town where you need to get on the highway to go to the grocery store is close to nature?

If the problem is the lack of predators, then the solution is to reintroduce predators, and Upstate New York can naturally provide a solution: we must introduce coyotes to the nature preserve. Coyotes, contrary to what some links I may or may not have provided in this very article can and do eat deer. They are also fairly cute, basically being dogs that live outside and don’t like humans at all.² It would also be extremely easy to implement; since the mid 20th century, coyotes have used human built highways to expand their range from just the southwest to essentially the entire country (including Long Island!) Coyotes have broadly filled the ecological niche left behind by the extermination of North America’s native wolf populations, eating small animals. All the university would have to do to introduce coyotes would be to allow a pack from a nearby forest to move in, because trust me there are packs in nearby forests. 

The Nature preserve is one of campuses’ best assets, and it is the reason some people came to Binghamton at all. A variety of classes and clubs make use of it to do educational things, a variety of friend groups use it as a private place to smoke weed, and a variety of couples use it as a secluded space to have sex. It is an important part of the Binghamton experience, and we must not allow the scourge of the deer to destroy it. To save the nature preserve, to save Binghamton, we must introduce coyotes to the nature preserve. It would be cheap, it would be environmentally friendly and it would be right. 

Plus you know, the coyotes are already there so all the university would actually have to do is stop lying about it.

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¹ Ignore the fact that this page also discusses coyotes and explains that they would do nothing to combat the deer population, that is not important

² Do not try to pet the coyotes