Riverhead closes EPCAL bike path this month due to deer-hunting on site

The bike path and surrounding areas at the Calverton Enterprise Park have been closed by the town for the month of January due to deer-hunting season.

January is the special firearms season for deer in Suffolk County. This year the state DEC expanded the firearms season to include weekends.

The Town of Riverhead has opened town-owned lands at the enterprise park to deer hunting for both the archery and firearms seasons for the past several years.

The EPCAL bike path runs along undeveloped wooded areas made available to hunters during shotgun season, which opened Jan. 4.

Permission to hunt on the EPCAL site was determined by lottery. Only licensed hunters in possession of the required state-issued tags were eligible to enter the lottery, which for shotgun hunting was held Dec. 18.

There are other publicly owned lands in the area that are open for shotgun deer-hunting season this month, including the following state-managed properties: Otis Pike Preserve, David Sarnoff Cooperative Hunting Area, Rocky Point Natural Resources Management Area, Westhampton Dwarf Pine Plains Preserve, Henry’s Hollow Pine Barrens State Forest, and Barcelona Neck Cooperative Hunting Area. The East Hampton Cooperative Area and Noyac (part of the Southampton Cooperative Areas) will be open for firearms deer hunting weekdays only from January 5 – 31.

Wildwood State Park, which was opened for bow-hunting of deer this year for the first time, is not open for shotgun hunting.

The state this year also expanded the archery season for deer in Suffolk County to include the month of January. It also raised the permit quotas for each town. The new rules  are intended to better manage the increasing deer populations in Suffolk County, according to DEC Commissioner Joe Martens.

The bike path at EPCAL is a paved three-mile path that runs along the eastern border of the former Grumman facility in Calverton. Town officials hope to extend the path to traverse the entire perimeter of the 2,900-acre site. Some portions of the site already have a paved path along the perimeter, once used by Grumman security details and town officials are looking to pave portions of the trail that are currently unpaved, to create a contiguous paved path around the perimeter of the site. Last month, the Suffolk County Legislature approved $200,000 in funding to extend the pavement by 2.4 miles.