Hobart and William Smith Colleges

A 25-minute drive southeast from the HWS campus, the former Seneca Army Depot is home to a well-known herd of white deer. Many dozens of the wild white-tailed deer that live inside the security fence at the former munitions storage facility have white coats, and are generally known as white deer. Contrary to popular understanding, these all white deer are not albino and are not the result of suspected chemical exposure.

The white deer at the former Depot are like any white-tailed deer, just with a genetic variation that causes their coats to be all white, instead of brown. These deer are considered an important cultural and historical resource, familiar to local families, yet the white deer pose a complication for Depot re-development.

The Depot was formally shut down in 2000 after being used as an army munitions storage facility for decades. The 10,000 acre Seneca Army Depot is predominantly owned by the Seneca County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), and managed in part by the U.S. Army, but not for much longer. The Army expects to be fully withdrawn from the site by 2016. This leaves Seneca County with a quandary – whether to risk the loss of the white deer herd as a consequence of site development, or find a way to conserve and manage the herd while providing appropriate economic opportunities for the rural communities nearby.