New hunter to NY here. Found some public land to hunt, it’s a WMA. I wish I read the regs more thoroughly because I threw up a ladder stand yesterday and today when I was re-reading them, I saw you can’t put temporary stands on WMAs, only on state forests and other such state land. I honestly didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to, I even put my name and license # on the stand. I was going to go take it down tomorrow but it’s an hour drive so I wanted to ask, what do DEC officers do if they find a ladderstand like mine on a WMA? Is this an automatic fine or whatever? Will they just call me and tell me to come get it? Confiscate? How often do officers go through areas like WMAs and check for stands? Any info would be helpful. I’ll still probably go take it down tomorrow, although I have seen other stands up on the WMA, I just prefer to stay on the right side of the law myself. Thanks!
