It’s an overcast day and the sky is covered in clouds with glimmers of blue behind. The dunes in front seem solid, but I know that each day they change. On this particular day they form a ridge with a small indentation in the middle that creates a barely worn path. The roots of sea grasses and juniper bushes are exposed, entangled with the sand.
Into the wind a figure appears, dressed in white. She walks to the ridge and stands listening. She holds an antennae with six prongs and a receiver that steadily beeps. She moves the antennae to the left, to the center, to the right. She listens. The beeps grow louder, they grow softer, and she moves in their direction. She climbs atop dunes, a lone figure in a seemingly empty landscape. Beep. Beep. Beep. Antennae to the left, antennae to the right.
We’re in the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness, the only federally mandated wilderness in New York state. It is the smallest official Wilderness managed by the U.S. National Park Service and it stretches for seven miles along the barrier island. It is undeveloped, but with a storied history. It is managed, preserved wilderness. And we are tracking a deer.
Deer have become a huge problem in Fire Island, and in many parts of the United States. Bobcats, wolves and coyotes used to be their natural predators but their numbers have dwindled. The deer are now managed by humans in an effort to keep the ecosystem in balance. This includes tracking them: “Since 1995 surveys to estimate deer numbers, known as distance sampling surveys, have been conducted on Fire Island. Distance sampling is a ground-based method of estimating the number of animals in a given area which uses survey routes, or transects, within certain stretches of the island, referred to as tracts or study units, to estimate the total number of deer.”6
The wilderness is filled with mosquitoes. Kat, the biologist, is wearing a hazmat suit with a net hat that covers her entire face and tucks into her suit. I’m wearing the same and following her with a camera and a tripod. I’m tracking her as she tracks the deer. And even with our protection, a few of the thousands of mosquitoes are finding their way inside my netting and onto my face. Kat seems unperturbed, but this isn’t her first time.
When she finds the deer, if she finds the deer, what will she know?
Into the wind a figure appears, dressed in white. She walks to the ridge and stands listening. She holds an antennae with six prongs and a receiver that steadily beeps. She moves the antennae to the left, to the center, to the right. She listens. The beeps grow louder, they grow softer, and she moves in their direction. She climbs atop dunes, a lone figure in a seemingly empty landscape. Beep. Beep. Beep. Antennae to the left, antennae to the right.
We’re in the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness, the only federally mandated wilderness in New York state. It is the smallest official Wilderness managed by the U.S. National Park Service and it stretches for seven miles along the barrier island. It is undeveloped, but with a storied history. It is managed, preserved wilderness. And we are tracking a deer.
Deer have become a huge problem in Fire Island, and in many parts of the United States. Bobcats, wolves and coyotes used to be their natural predators but their numbers have dwindled. The deer are now managed by humans in an effort to keep the ecosystem in balance. This includes tracking them: “Since 1995 surveys to estimate deer numbers, known as distance sampling surveys, have been conducted on Fire Island. Distance sampling is a ground-based method of estimating the number of animals in a given area which uses survey routes, or transects, within certain stretches of the island, referred to as tracts or study units, to estimate the total number of deer.”6
The wilderness is filled with mosquitoes. Kat, the biologist, is wearing a hazmat suit with a net hat that covers her entire face and tucks into her suit. I’m wearing the same and following her with a camera and a tripod. I’m tracking her as she tracks the deer. And even with our protection, a few of the thousands of mosquitoes are finding their way inside my netting and onto my face. Kat seems unperturbed, but this isn’t her first time.
When she finds the deer, if she finds the deer, what will she know?