Happenings November 2026

November 2026

Deer Hunting Season: Supporting Healthy Forests in New York

Bug of the Month: Goldenrod Gall Fly

Pantries Bridge The Gap When Families Face Food Aid Uncertainty

Keep Bacteria and Other Unwanted Guests Away from Holiday Festivities

4-H News: Our Clubs are Off to a Great Start

Give Tasty Turkey Lettuce Wraps a Try 

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Supporting Healthy Forests: Deer Hunting Season and Population Management 

by Savannah Fox, Natural Resources Program Coordinator

As autumn arrives across New York State, deer hunting offers an opportunity to reflect on an important part of natural resource conservation: managing white-tailed deer populations to support healthy, resilient forests.

Deer are a natural and important part of our ecosystems, but when populations exceed what the landscape can sustainably support, the effects can be far-reaching. Excessive browsing can prevent native tree seedlings and wildflowers from growing, reduce plant diversity, and limit the ability of forests to regenerate. These changes can also affect wildlife that depends on diverse native vegetation for food and shelter. In some areas, high amounts of deer may contribute to conditions that favor invasive plants and can influence the abundance of ticks that carry Lyme disease.

Responsible deer management is one tool that land managers and conservation professionals use to help maintain ecological balance and protect the natural areas our communities depend on for wildlife habitat, clean water, and general safety.

What to Know About New York's Deer Hunting Season
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) oversees hunting regulations and deer management throughout the state. Big game hunting seasons vary by species, location, and hunting method, with many deer hunting opportunities occurring during the fall and early winter.

The DEC has also adopted new regulations intended to increase the harvest of antlerless deer, which are primarily female deer and play a central role in population growth. These measures are designed to give hunters additional opportunities to help manage deer populations in areas where they are higher than the landscape can sustainably support.

One of these measures is the statewide “Earn-a-2nd-Buck” system. Under this system, hunters who harvest and report an antlerless deer using a valid antlerless deer tag can qualify to receive an additional antlered deer tag, subject to applicable DEC requirements. The state has also expanded opportunities to use Deer Management Permits in areas where additional population management is needed.

Anyone interested in hunting should consult the DEC's current regulations for the applicable season dates, locations, permits, and requirements.

Protecting Forest Regeneration at Tilly Foster Farm
Here in Putnam County, deer management is also an important consideration in our local conservation work. Hunting is one tool used to manage deer populations, but protecting forest regeneration can also require site-specific measures. Deer exclosures, for example, prevent browsing in designated areas and allow land managers to assess how vegetation responds when deer pressure is reduced. At Cornell Cooperative Extension Putnam County (CCEPC), our Restore & Regenerate Forest project at Tilly Foster Farm is working to restore approximately one acre of forest and support the long-term regeneration of a diverse, native woodland.

To prepare the site for restoration, we have worked with contractors to remove more than 90% of the invasive plant cover across the project area. Our next steps include installing a deer exclosure - a protective fence designed to keep deer out - and planting the first section of the restoration site in spring 2027.

Over the next 5 years, we’ll plant over 500 trees, helping establish the next generation of forest vegetation. Protecting these young plants from deer browsing will be essential to giving them a chance to survive and grow. Over time, monitoring vegetation inside and outside the exclosure can help us better understand how deer browsing affects forest regeneration and which native species are successfully establishing at the site.

Our long-term vision is to support the regeneration of an Appalachian oak-hickory hardwood forest, including the native understory plants that contribute to a healthy and diverse ecosystem. As mature trees age and eventually die, successful forest regeneration helps ensure that new generations of trees and other native plants are ready to take their place. Healthy forests provide habitat for wildlife, support local water quality, help forests withstand environmental stressors, and create opportunities for people to connect with nature.

The Restore & Regenerate Forest project also serves as a community research forest, where our visitors can learn how to support healthy forests through citizen science and hand-on learning. By restoring native vegetation and protecting new growth, we hope to create a living example of how land stewardship can benefit both the environment and the people who enjoy it.

Want to learn more about identifying native tree seedlings and exploring local biodiversity? Join us on November 14 for a Nature Journaling and Biodiversity Scavenger Hunt! Together, we’ll explore the forest, observe and identify plants, wildlife, and other natural features, and learn how to capture our observations in a nature journal. All interest and skill levels are welcome!

Learn More:
Deer and Bear Hunting Regulations — NYS DEC 
Why We Manage Deer — Cornell Botanic Gardens 
Appalachian Oak-Hickory Forest — New York Natural Heritage Program  

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Bug of the Month: Goldenrod Gall Fly

by Janis Butler, Master Gardener Volunteer

Did you ever play with ‘noggin knockers’ as a kid? The ‘knockers’ are galls: dry, corky balls found on goldenrod stems in fall and winter. If you snap off a stalk of goldenrod near its base and again just above the gall, you have a small, stiff club with which to chase other children around as you knock one another on the noggin.

What is a gall? It’s an abnormal growth or swelling of plant tissue, stimulated by what the plant perceives as a threat. This threat could be an insect, mite, fungus, bacteria, virus, or other agent who uses the gall in various ways: as a food supply, for example, and/or as protection against weather and predators. Galls rarely cause serious harm to the host and can appear on almost any part of a plant: leaves, twigs, stems, flowers, or even roots. They come in many shapes and colors, sometimes vibrant, taking the form of balls, as in the goldenrod gall; spikes, fingers, and other variations.

The story of the Goldenrod Gall Fly (Eurosta solidaginis, fruitfly family) begins in spring, when the flies emerge from last year’s galls and look for mates. The male fly stakes out a position at the tip of a goldenrod and makes himself highly visible. He might wander around on the stem, laying down chemical pheromones as an additional sign of his presence. When a female approaches, he rocks rapidly from side to side, flicking his wings to attract her attention… a courtship dance.

Once they mate, the female begins her search for the perfect plant on which to lay her eggs. There are 100 to 150 species of goldenrod in the world, most of them in North America. The exact number is elusive since they often hybridize in the wild. The Goldenrod Gall Fly chooses only Common Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), Tall Goldenrod (S. altissima), or Giant Goldenrod (S. gigantea) for egg-laying because these species are biochemically compatible with her larvae when they hatch, meaning these species are all the larvae are equipped to eat. She uses chemical sensors on her feet and antennae to “taste” each plant before making her choice. She lays a few eggs in each goldenrod’s terminal bud —100 to 200 eggs in her short lifetime — but usually only one or two result in galls on a single plant. Goldenrod Gall Flies only live about 10 to 14 days as adults, the rest of their lives being spent inside the gall as egg, larva and pupa.

Each egg hatches in 5 to 8 days and the emerging larva chews its way to the center of the stem and down. The presence of its saliva alerts the goldenrod, which reacts by forming a gall.

What happens in the goldenrod gall? When the plant senses an invader — the gall fly larva— it sends additional stem material, which happens to be rich in protein and starch, to protect the area. The invading fly larva enjoys this food supply and the protection the gall provides. As the fly larva matures, it feeds off the inner wall of the stem, and the plant compensates for this loss by continually sending replacement nutrients to the area. As this process continues, the walls of the stem bulge out and form a green ball — the gall — which dries out and turns brown and tough-skinned in fall.

As winter approaches, the fly larva has an important task to perform: preparing its exit. It continues eating plant tissue, this time while chewing its way back toward the outer skin of the stem and in so doing, enlarging an exit passage wide enough for its larger self. This is especially important because its soon-to-beadult self will lack mouthparts. Adult Goldenrod Gall Flies do not eat during their two-week-long lives. The larva leaves a thin layer of skin on the outside of the gall. Then it crawls back to the center of the stem and, like many insects, produces intra-cellular “anti-freeze”, consisting of glycerol and sorbitol, to prevent its internal organs from freezing as it rests for the rest of the winter. 

In spring, the larva “wakes up” from this state of diapause and pupates. When ready to emerge as an adult, it crawls back through the tunnel it made the previous fall and inflates a swelling "balloon” on its head, much like the eggtooth on a chick. The tough balloon bursts through the outer layer of gall skin and the fly emerges as a fully-formed adult Goldenrod Gall Fly and begins looking for a mate.

Not-so-ideal life. If events from egg to adult proceeded as described above, life would be perfect for the Goldenrod Gall Fly, though we might find ourselves overrun by them. Unfortunately for the fly but fortunately for balance in our ecosystem, the Goldenrod Gall Fly has enemies, especially in the larval stage. There are two main waves of attack.

Summer attackers include parasitoid wasps. The female of one wasp species (Eurytoma obtusiventris) inserts her ovipositor directly into the egg or embryo of the Goldenrod Gall Fly, laying an egg while the fly is still in the goldenrod bud. The wasp egg, now inside the fly egg or embryo, stays dormant as the fly egg hatches into a larva and begins its journey down the center of the plant stem. Once the fly larva has triggered the formation of a gall, the wasp, now at its own larval stage, becomes active and consumes the fly larva from the inside out.

Another species of wasp, working after the gall has begun to form, uses her ovipositor to pierce the still-thin outer wall of the gall and lay an egg directly inside the chamber. Once hatched, her larva, too, devours the Goldenrod Gall Fly larva. Both of these wasps’ ovipositors are just long enough to reach inside the smallish early-season galls. Fly larvae inside large, thick, older galls are generally safe from them.

In winter, there are a host of hungry birds who consider the tender gall fly larvae, much bigger by now, a treat worth working for. Black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, and downy woodpeckers are especially eager to drill holes in the tough skin of the galls and extract the grubs. They prefer larger galls, despite the thicker skins, because they’re easier to spot and are likely to contain fatter grubs: a more gratifying meal. Close observers can tell which bird species has been drilling based on the size and shape of the hole.

Biologists call this balance between small galls preferred by parasitoid wasps and large galls preferred by birds the Goldilocks evolutionry effect: the striving for “just right”. The conflicting pressure favors flies that produce medium-sized galls: thick enough to discourage parasitoid wasps but small enough to escape the attention of hungry birds.

Goldenrod Gall Flies benefit one additional preditor: the human fisherman. Ice fishermen are particularly eager to break open the galls and find plump, juicy larvae even in sub-zero temperatures, thanks to the larvae’s natural “antifreeze”. They’re quite resilient on a fishing hook and effective bait for fish such as bluegill, perch, and crappie.

The Goldenrod Gall Fly is a good example of an insect that does not fit the human-centric definition of “beneficial” (except to fishermen!) but is of great importance in its community, providing sustenance and shelter to other species and hereby contributing to balanced ecosystems.

Photo credits: Goldenrod Gall Audiala (CC0 1.0 Universal)

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Pantries Bridge The Gap When Families Face Food Aid Uncertainty

by Ruby Koch-Fienberg, Ag & Food Systems Coordinator

During the holiday season, the struggle to put a meal on the table becomes even heavier for families feeling financial struggles. In 2023, 12,823 households—making up 37 percent of Putnam County’s population—fell below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold, meaning more than one in three of our neighbors struggles daily to cover basic living costs.

As the holidays approach, festive gatherings and winter expenses make this strain much harder to bear. If you are looking for the closest pantry to access resources, you can find an updated list HERE.

At Cornell Cooperative Extension Putnam County, we are committed to strengthening our local food system, but we urge everyone: please support your local pantries, which will be pivotal in helping families bridge the gap during this crisis.

Donating money, toiletries, and basic essentials makes an immediate impact—before bringing food, always check your pantry’s website or call to see what's most needed, as priorities may change. Together, we can address urgent needs and help our neighbors weather this incredibly difficult moment.

Bountiful Meals freezers across the county are available to anyone. Click HERE to see the locations and hours.

Below is a list of food pantries in our area:

• Putnam Community Action (CAP), Brewster: (845) 278-8021, www.putnamcap.org
• First Baptist Church Brewster: (845) 279-2636, www.putnamcap.org
• Putnam Valley Community Food Pantry: (845) 458-1251, www.putnamvalleyfoodpantry.org
• Casa Servir, Kent: (845) 221-8785, www.casaservir.com/
• Brewster Community Food Pantry: (845) 279-4325, www.facebook.com/brewsterfoodpantry/
• Gilead Food Pantry, Carmel: (845) 225-4586, https://gileadchurch.org/food-pantry/
• Patterson Community Church: (845) 878-3961, https://pattersoncommunitychurch.org/food-pantry/
• New Life Christian Church, Brewster: (845) 278-9407
• First Presbyterian Church, Cold Spring: (845) 265-3220, www.presbychurchcoldspring.org/food-pantry.html
• Community Food Pantry at St Mary's, Mohegan Lake: (914) 528-3972, www.cfpstmarysmoheganlake.com
• St Peter's Episcopal Church, Peekskill: (914) 737-6312, https://www.stpeterspeekskill.org/freds-food-pantry
• Red Mills Baptist Church, Mahopac: (845) 628-4230, www.redmillsbaptist.org
• Holy Spirit Food Pantry, Cortlandt Manor: (914) 737-2316, https://holyspirit-cortlandtmanor.org/food-pantry
• Brewster Cares: (845) 279-2021, brewstercaresny.org
• St. John the Evangelist, Mahopac: (845) 628-2006 ,https://sjte.online/events/food-pantry
• Feeding Westchester, Jefferson Valley: (914) 923-1100, feedingwestchester.org
• Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Cornwall-on-Hudson: (845) 534-5344, foodbankofhudsonvalley.org
• Salvation Army Peekskill-Food Pantry/Soup Kitchen: (914) 737-0280, https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/ny/peekskill/nelson-avenue-corps/hunger/

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Keep Bacteria and Other Unwanted Guests Away from Holiday Festivities

from Larry Clow, University of New Hampshire Extension

However you celebrate, Thanksgiving is a time for welcoming friends, family, guests, visitors and others into your home for a meal. Whether your hosting philosophy is of the “more-the-merrier” bent or you prefer small, intimate gatherings, you want your guests to feel welcome and be safe.

There is one group you will want to keep far away from your Thanksgiving celebrations: the viruses and bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses. These unwanted guests often appear via flu-like symptoms within 24 to 48 hours after the big meal. Did you catch a cold or flu from the aunt or cousin who sneezed their way through the day? Or is a foodborne illness to blame for your post-holiday maladies? You may never know, but you can reduce the risks by safely handling your holiday meals.

Basic Tips

• Always Be Washing: Wash your hands and all cooking surfaces often. When in doubt, wash. 
• Don’t Mix Them Up: Keep raw meat and ready-to-eat foods separate. 
• Taking Temperature: Cook meats and poultry to proper temperatures. Use a food thermometer for accurate readings. 
• Leftover Love: Some people love leftovers; others don’t. But the best way to show your leftovers some love is to refrigerate them promptly and use within four days.

Turkey Safety

When it comes to Thanksgiving food safety, it’s time to talk turkey. Read and download New Hampshire Extension's Turkey Tips sheet here.

Follow these simple steps to keep the centerpiece of your meal safe.

• Thawing: If you’ve purchased a frozen turkey, be sure to leave enough time to thaw it safely. Thaw your frozen turkey in the refrigerator. Allow about 24 hours for every four and a half pounds of turkey. (A 20 to 24 pound turkey could take five to six days to thaw.) A thawed turkey can safely remain in the fridge for one to two days, as can a fresh turkey. You can find additional thawing facts and methods here. 
• Don’t Thaw on the Counter: Taking your turkey out of the freezer on Wednesday and letting it thaw overnight on the counter is not safe. If bacteria were present in the turkey, they can begin to multiply once the turkey reaches room temperature. Never leave meat or poultry to thaw on the counter for more than two hours. 
• Safe Stuffing: Cooking the big meal is stressful, but some shortcuts aren’t safe. Don’t stuff the turkey the night before. To save time, prepare wet and dry ingredients separately and chill until you’re ready to prepare and cook the turkey. Stuff the turkey loosely and cook immediately. If you’re still hungry for stuffing safety facts, read these USDA tips. 
• Get Cooking: Once preparations are finished, place the turkey in an oven set no lower than 325 F. Use a thermometer to make sure the turkey reaches at least 165 F. Measure with a food thermometer in the thickest part of the bird. If the bird is stuffed, cook until the center of the stuffing reaches 165 F. If your turkey has a “pop-up” thermometer, double-check the temperature with a food thermometer. 
• Cool Off: Let the turkey stand for 20 minutes before carving and removing the stuffing.

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4-H News: Our Clubs are Off to a Great Start

from Brandy Keenan, 4-H Educator

Our 4-H Clubs are off to a great start!

Recently, members learned about cleaning up horse paddocks at Top Focus Jr. Equine Club. Members are learning how to properly care for horses, which includes grooming, stable chores and farm management. Kids in the Hay You! Livestock Club met the piglets at Tilly Foster Farm. They'll meet and learn about all the farm animals at Tilly.

Registration is still open for many of our clubs!

Parents and guardians can register their youth by visiting the 4-H page on our website.

We offer 10 clubs for youth and are excited to have several new clubs this year!

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Give Tasty Turkey Lettuce Wraps a Try

from Josephine Quiocho, Nutrition Educator

Turkey Ginger Rice Lettuce Wraps are a healthy and delicious low-carbohydrate meal. They're also gluten-free!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce (reduced-sodium)
• 3 teaspoons sugar (granulated or brown)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 3 pounds ground turkey (lean, 15% fat or less)
• 2 celery (stalks, sliced)
• 2 medium carrots (shredded)
• 1 tablespoon ginger root (minced, or 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic, minced)
• 1 can water chestnuts (8 ounces, drained and chopped)
• 2 cups brown rice (cooked)
• 8 large lettuce leaves

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, blend the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and hot sauce.
2. In a large skillet, sauté turkey, celery and carrot until the turkey begins to brown, 10 minutes. Break turkey into crumbles as it cooks.
3. Add ginger and garlic. Cook 2 minutes.
4. Stir in soy sauce mixture and water chestnuts. Cook 2 minutes longer.
5. Stir in cooked rice. Heat through.
6. Serve in lettuce leaves.
7. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

Source: Oregon State University Extension

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Last updated November 1, 2026