Outdoors in RI: Deer on the Move, Talking Turkey, Red Flag Law in Maine, Get your Blessing

Love is in the Air – Deer are on the Move

It’s deer mating season, and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) reminds drivers to stay alert for deer crossing roadways, particularly at dawn and dusk. Known as the “rut”, which begins in late October and continues into December, deer tend to move around more and collisions with vehicles are more common during this time. Tips to avoid deer vehicle collisions include:

Motorists should use caution during deer mating season, as they are particularly mobile from now until early December. Credit: Carol Hamilton

• Scan the shoulders of the road in front of you; deer may dash out from the shoulder or wooded areas next to the road
• If you see a deer while driving, proceed with caution and expect more than just one deer
• Follow the speed limit
• Always use seat belts
• If a collision is unavoidable, apply the brakes firmly and remain in your lane

If you hit a deer, be careful when approaching as it may only be stunned, and a person could be seriously injured by a wounded animal’s attempt to escape. Report any deer collisions to DEM’s 24-hour dispatch at 401-222-3070, your local police, and your insurance company. Motorists should also notify the dispatch if they observe an injured or dead deer on the road.

A free new permit allows the public to salvage deer and certain wildlife killed in vehicle collisions. This helps reduce waste and eases the burden on state staff. You must get the permit within 24-hours of collecting wildlife by filling out the form at www.dem.ri.gov/wildlife-salvage-permit or calling 401-789-0281. The regulation also requires reporting most wildlife collisions that cause significant vehicle damage, helping DEM track wildlife and improve road safety.

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Blessings!

“Blessing of the Animals,” will start at 10 a.m. at Slatersville Congregational Church, an outdoor event open to both the public and to beasts of every stripe. “It’s going to be really fun,” said Rev. Sean Amato. “In this world of deep partisan divide, what is more uniting than coming together over our animals?” Blessings of this nature are a tip of the hat and ecclesiastical tradition to honor St. Francis of Assisi. “People have llamas, people have sheep, people have goats…” said Amato. “Many people go it alone, with pets.”

The pastor said he will put his hands over each animal in attendance November 8 and say a brief prayer in hopes that they “continue to enrich the families that love them.”

From the Worcester Cathedral in England:

From Genesis 1:25: “God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.”

All are welcome to bring animals and visit the common at Slatersville Congregational Church at 25 Green St. at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 8 to receive a blessing.

TY to NRINews

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Gobble report: Assessing wild turkeys in Rhode Island

Top photo:  URI grad (and adjunct faculty member) Jay Osenkowski at DEM says the agency will use URI’s research expertise to gain additional data on Rhode Island’s turkey population to better understand the birds across the state

New URI project launching this fall will study the state’s wild turkeys to better understand and maintain local population

Everyone’s talking turkey at this time of year. But Scott McWilliams’ lab at the University of Rhode Island is thinking about them in particular, hoping to call significant attention to the iconic New England bird.

The University’s Department of Natural Resources Science is launching a five-year study of the North American Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) to track its health and population in Rhode Island, in partnership with the state’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM).

Professor McWilliams, a certified wildlife biologist, says the team seeks to learn more about the reintroduced bird’s health in terms of disease prevalence, stressors, reproduction, and other habits.

“This is a well-known species, but we don’t know a lot about the drivers of this population,” he says.

URI is launching a new research focus on the Eastern Wild Turkey, to track its health and population in the state, in partnership with Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management. (Photo Rhode Island DEM)

Comeback clucks

Though the lively bird sometimes makes news—especially in city settings, thanks to its confident strutting around town—the fact that URI has subjects to study is cause for celebration.

Wild turkeys were extirpated (eliminated) in Rhode Island in the 1800s due to overharvesting, forest clearing, and land-use changes. Starting in 1980, DEM and the National Wild Turkey Federation began a wildlife restoration program, bringing 29 turkeys from Vermont to Exeter, followed by additional translocations through the 1990s—all crucial in getting the species reestablished in the state. Today, the wild turkey can now be found in all cities and towns in the state, except Block Island.

DEM staff say wild turkeys’ comeback in the state is “one of the true wildlife success stories.”

Turkey hunting was re-introduced in Rhode Island in 1985. This past spring, turkey hunters harvested 368 total birds, the highest recorded harvest to date. Several out-of-staters also came to Rhode Island to hunt, drawing hunters from Kansas, Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Turkeys were harvested in 27 of Rhode Island’s 39 towns, with Burrillville leading the way at 41 harvested; South Kingstown, URI’s hometown, reported 32 birds. The majority of those harvested were adult males—the traditional Tom, or Gobbler, Turkey.

McWilliams says the URI project will help Rhode Island DEM ensure proper management of this historic resource for future generations, in our state and beyond.

Jay Osenkowski ’98 ’03, deputy chief of fish and wildlife at DEM and a URI adjunct faculty member, adds, “This project will allow us to capitalize on the research expertise and dedicated personnel at URI to gain additional demographic data on our local turkey population. This will help bolster our existing data set and better understand the movement patterns of birds in both urban and suburban areas in Rhode Island.”

URI is launching a new research focus on the Eastern Wild Turkey, to track its health and population in the state, in partnership with Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management. (Photo Rhode Island DEM)

Talking turkey

McWilliams is the coordinator of URI’s Ecology and Ecosystems specialization group, which brings together faculty and graduate students to solve ecological problems. The program provides graduate students with faculty mentorship while they learn research methods and designs; students in his lab have a robust publishing profile.

Postdoctoral fellow Dylan Bakner, along with graduate students Dekka Ducote and Richard Mercer ’21, will lead the lab’s new turkey project.

Rhode Island’s small yet varied geography will provide them a range of habitats in which to study the turkey. The team aims to understand whether and how disease limits wild turkey populations in the state and plans to monitor wild turkeys during the breeding season. With a focus on avian health, the study also includes URI Assistant Professor Johanna Harvey, and has received support from the Ocean State Fantails chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

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How to catch a wild turkey

Postdoctoral fellow Dylan Bakner is part of a team assessing the wild turkey in Rhode Island, launching this fall.

Carefully!

For scientific purposes, wild turkeys will be captured from December through March of this academic year using rocket nets, net guns, and/or walk-in traps—standard avian study measures—as well as GPS-VHF transmitters deployed to capture bird habit and movement data. URI will also use its on-campus GIS capability to analyze nest data.

URI’s team has already made estimations and conducted nesting studies to assess turkey habitats, hatching and nesting, to estimate survival and examine the population’s productivity. In the long term, they hope to develop a new population model and determine distribution and abundance. They also plan to assess geography to see if there are differences in rural and urban turkeys and compare populations for survival rates. The project also includes a disease aspect, looking at sources of mortality and diseases. Wild turkeys are susceptible to West Nile Virus, something that DEM is specifically interested in, as well as how disease prevalence may or may not influence reproduction.

McWilliams says the new study builds off a memorandum of agreement started several years ago with DEM, bringing together agency staff and URI faculty to partner and collaborate on environmental and life science issues. DEM’s Division of Fish and Wildlife has worked with URI biologists on many projects in recent years, from bobcats and bears to New England cottontail and American woodcock. He says the ongoing partnership recognizes expertise at URI and highlights ways that agencies and the University can work together collaboratively.

“The agencies gain expertise while our students get research experience serving institutions doing public work,” McWilliams said. “URI brings strong established connections, especially in applied ecology research. This is our mission as a land-grant institution.”

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A Red Flag in Maine

On November 4, 2025, Maine voters approved a ballot initiative (Question 2) establishing a so-called “red flag” law, officially allowing family members or household members — in addition to law enforcement — to petition a court to temporarily restrict a person’s access to firearms if that individual is judged to pose a significant danger to themselves or others. Prior to this change, Maine had what was known as a “yellow flag” law, under which only police could initiate the process and only after a mental-health evaluation and protective custody — a process critics said was too slow and limited, especially in light of the deadly 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people. The new red flag law expands the pool of petitioners, aligns Maine with more than 20 other states that use extreme risk protection orders, and is intended to provide a more accessible tool to intervene when someone is believed to be at imminent risk of gun-related violence.

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