BINGHAMTON (AP) -- A judge has blocked Binghamton University's plan to have sharpshooters kill 90 percent of deer in a campus nature preserve, saying the college has to do an environmental impact study.
The Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin reports that state Supreme Court Justice Molly Fitzgerald ruled the university's deer-culling plan doesn't comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
Michael Danaher, an assistant attorney general representing the university, said at a hearing last week that Department of Environmental Conservation rules didn't require such a study. DEC had issued a permit for the shooting, which was to be done over Christmas break. A retired professor who lives near the preserve mounted the court challenge.
A university environmental committee recommended the culling plan because the overpopulation of deer is damaging the forest.
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