The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) will open an undeveloped section of Saratoga Spa State Park to white tail deer hunting for the 2026-27 season as part of a deer management program.
The program allows permitted bow and crossbow hunting within a roughly 600-acre section of the park south of East-West Road and along Kayderossearas Creek within the city of Saratoga Springs and the town of Malta.
The park will issue 15 permits for the initial hunting season from October 13, 2026, through January 1, 2027.
Hunters are required to receive a park-specific hunting permit, in addition to their New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued hunting license, to hunt at the park.
A randomized lottery system will be used to select which 15 applicants receive permits to ensure all applications have an equal chance of being selected.
The hunting area will be posted with signage, and hunting will not be permitted within 250-feet of any building, road, parking lot, or neighboring private property.
“Portable tree stands are permitted during the hunting season, provided hunters do not damage trees or other vegetation,” the announcement said.
Building or using permanent tree stands is prohibited. No overnight camping is permitted within the park. All other State Parks rules and regulations apply.
The park’s deer management program will follow DEC’s Earn-a-2nd-Buck program – meaning that before harvesting an antlered deer (buck), participants must first take a antlerless (typically female) deer.
All other rules pertaining to hunting season dates and allowed take will follow DEC deer hunting regulations for this area of the state. The park is within DEC Wildlife Management Unit 5R, within DEC’s Southern Zone.
State Parks said “the goal is to manage white-tailed deer populations within the park at a level appropriate to support forest regeneration and resilient natural communities; enhance habitat for forest-dependent wildlife; and provide for safe and enjoyable recreational and educational opportunities.”
Over 80 New York State Parks and Historic Sites maintain hunting programs, of which 65 offer deer hunting, including several in State Parks’ Saratoga-Capital District Region.
Saratoga Spa State Park, a National Historic Landmark is home to its famous geysers and mineral springs Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), the Spa Little Theater, The Children’s Museum at Saratoga, the Saratoga Automobile Museum, the Gideon Putnam Resort, Roosevelt Baths and Spa, the Peerless Pool Complex (with a main pool and children’s wading pool), the Historic Victoria Pool, two Saratoga Spa State Park Golf Courses, and the Creekside Classroom, a four-season environmental education center.
The Parks’ gentle terrain offers picnic areas, shady stream side trails, suitable for the nature-lover or the casual walker, as well as certified running courses used by joggers and high school and college athletes. Winter activities include cross-country skiing on approximately 12 miles of trails, ice skating, ice hockey. Saratoga Spa has ten renatable pavilions.
Further information on the hunting program, including the hunting area map, is available on the Saratoga Spa State Park website.
Read More About Saratoga Spa State Park
Illustrations, from above: Kayaderosseras Creek (courtesy Friends of Kayaderosseras Creek); and Saratoga Spa State Park Hunting Areas Map, 2026 (see a larger version here).
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
They wouldn’t HAVE to “manage” deer if they didn’t artifically inseminate does like a factory assembly line – and I’ve literally seen this done.
This is just keeping the masses happy by letting them kill something. Of course, they aren’t getting the old or sick ones, just the BEST ones.
I could say more, but you wouldn’t print what I would write.
And hunters – don’t bother responding. I’m 100% against hunting and not interested in anything you have to say.