JAMESTOWN — An animal-rights group is leveling sharp criticism at the state Department of Environmental Management and the Town Council for authorizing a special deer hunting season at Beavertail State Park.

Calling the season a “disaster waiting to happen,” Providence-based Defenders of Animals said it will lead to more deer-automobile collisions and drive more deer into residential areas as the animals flee from hunters.

“This is the kind of thing that happens any time you have hunting of deer,” Dennis Tabella, Defenders of Animals’ director, said yesterday. “You’re going to have a problem.”

While the DEM has been saying that the hunting will reduce the island’s growing deer population, Tabella said the agency is actually trying to boost the deer population by reducing the number of deer that are competing for food. In the process, the agency can boost the revenues it takes in from hunting, he said.

“They’re not keeping it under control; they’re just perpetuating the need for hunting,” he said.

Gail Mastrati, a DEM spokeswoman, dismissed those statements yesterday, saying hunting “has long been considered a wildlife population management tool.” Mastrati said the DEM puts all the money it receives through hunting fees, which totaled $398,853 during fiscal year 2006, into a wildlife restoration program.

“The money does not go into the DEM general coffer,” she said

The special hunting season, approved by the Town Council after the DEM said it was needed to trim the island’s deer population, will begin Monday and run through Jan. 31, covering about 100 of the park’s 200 acres. Rather than use guns, the hunters will use bows and arrows, which the DEM said will improve safety.

Hunting will be allowed Monday through Friday, from a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset, through Dec. 31. In January, hunting will be allowed seven days a week, until the season ends on Jan. 31.

In a news release issued yesterday, the DEM said special fluorescent orange clothing is not required for hunters or people visiting the park but it is recommended for people who plan to visit the hunting area. The area will cover northern portions of the park, excluding areas near the access road, parking lots along the the western stretch of the park loop road, areas south of the parking lots and areas south of the northeastern stretch of the loop road.

Jamestown’s deer population is believed to be about 400, with about 45 to 50 living in the Beavertail area, Lori Gibson, supervising wildlife biologist at the DEM, told the council on Monday. Gibson estimated that the hunt might kill about 10 deer, a figure that led some at the meeting to question why the hunt was needed.

Tabella said the DEM, if it wants to control the deer population, should pursue a program of tranquilizing, sterilizing and moving deer to better locations. Or, the agency could simply leave the deer alone, he said.

“They need to stay away from hunting for about five years and the deer population will just balance off naturally,” he said.

A DEM news release yesterday said deer have been involved in 17 collisions with automobiles in Jamestown this year, equaling the number for all of 2005. Further growth of the deer herd will harm native vegetation and hurt other wildlife in the area, the agency said.

The number of hunters at Beavertail will be limited to 10 per day, and the hunters will need proficiency cards to obtain their permits from the Jamestown police. Signs will be posted to notify visitors to the hunt area.

Tabella said Defenders of Animals will take steps to stop the hunt but declined to specify what the organization is planning.