foothills habitat

It's not 'my' Cooperative where these things have occured. The old school mentality here is strong, especially when we grew up with very few deer and no doe seasons. Things have changed - the habitat, land ownership, human and deer populations. Personally & honestly, my cooperative area folks are all on the same page. The folks I am talking about don't give anyone the courtesy of a listen. Not every area of New York is the same. I agree, sure - if it was one guy taking a deer, no biggie in the large scheme of things. But when it's a dozen ? Because they are easy pickings ? Come on. Obviosly we have DEC enforcement short - staffed issues like the rest of the State. Education is key, I agree - most people get it. But for the guy with 50 acres, and no cooperative - I think he feels better with the insurance that the buck he just passed isnt going to cross the fence and get hammered. What they are trying to do is NOT a Nazi approach. I think what most people miss is that DEC restricts your harvest now, they tell you what you can and cant shoot, when you can do it, etc. If it didnt matter why do they have to have antlers at all ?

The last survey was in 2013, to the general public, landowners, hunters, etc. My point was to provide background and facts, that are often lacking or misinterpreted, and the reasons why SWCFFH and the UHRV Branch Support it in these units. Its not being forced. A Super Majority of people in these DMUs want a regulation change. DEC only recognizes the Federation, and if our County Federation worked the way that it is supposed to work ( on paper and in theory ) it would have been a done deal long ago. And as far as "refused to be educated" what I mean is "refuse to have an open mind and recognize the biological and scientific facts".

I wanted to provide some background on this so that everyone understands the position and the situation that we are in, as I am president of the "...one Branch of QDMA..." The Upper Hudson River Valley Branch that represents Warren, Washington, Saratoga & Renesselaer Counties in NY. My long time friend owns a farm in Washington County, and In the late mid 1980s we started working on habitat and shooting some does, along with every single yearling buck we saw, and we stacked them up. Every 10 years or so, we would shoot a 'big buck' that was likely a 2 year old. We didnt know how old the bucks were, and we didnt care. In 2000, I realized that my neighbor was letting small bucks go, and we began practicing QDM on my friends farm here in 2000, based on the principes taught by Charlie Alsheimer. Our buck criteria began as 6 points & eartip spread, and is now 8 points and an eartip spread which eliminates ALL yearling bucks from harvest. That has since expaned to a QDM Cooperative with 7 different landowners, which I manage. On the Cooperative and surrounding lands, we are now regularty taking bucks aged 4 - 5 years old with regularity, animals that dress in excess of 200 pounds. The only thing that made this program "successful" at shooting older bucks was to restrict the harvest, not by aging with body characteristics - but by point & measurement restrictions that were easily identified in the field by the hunters. Otherwise, they would have survived to live past a year and a half and they certainly were not before 2000. The #1, lowest hole in the bucket, was AGE. not habitat, not soils, not genetics - AGE. Can we - and shouldnt we - want to fix that ? In 2004 we formed a Branch of the QDMA, and I have been on the Board of Directors since the beginning. I am also a graduate of QDMA's Deer Steward 1 & 2, and the Certified Lands Inspection program. Our deer are all aged by QDMA biologists and NYS DEC biologist. Point being, I know what I am talking about, and I am not one of the many self-certified experts. Around 2010, a group started talking about "Antler Restricions" to protect Yearling Bucks. A few were members of our Board. I was opposed, going with the "Education Not Regulation" as this is truly the best method. Over time I realized our educational efforts were not enough. Not enough when we have a 50 acre landowner surrounded by a 3,000 acre QDM Cooperative shooting every yearling they could, sometimes with "friends" hunting, taking in excess of 10 yearling bucks a season. Some people just simply refuse to be educated. Our land ownership is agricultural and fragmented habitat, with high hunter density and the yearling bucks do not survive. In 2010 one bowshop and a handful of volunteers formed the "Southern Washington County Future for Hunting" and gathered over 1,000 signatures on a petition to enact AR in DMU 5S and 5T. Our County Sportsmens Federation does not represent the local hunters, if they did we would have "AR" in DMU 5S + 5T a long time ago. There are currently 1,750 members of QDMA in the whole of New York State, and this one local group gets 1,000 + people, local people, that say "We want this", and we have to listen to how its being FORCED on people ? Not quite. We conducted an informal survey in the Summer of 2014 with 700+ responses and 90% are in favor of this still. These same people are now QDMA members and are looking to US (QDMA) to change things. 14 out of 15 on this 'one Branch's' Board are in favor of a regulartion change in DMU 5S + 5T, because we live here, hunt here, and we know what the people want. The website was created "AR for NY" , I dont think if they named the website "AR for DMU 5S + 5T" it would have attracted as much attention. The mission of the SWCFFH group is still Education, look at the webiste. And yet people will still ridicule the Author, Dick Henry - who was managing deer while we were in diapers ? We dont really care what kind of regulations you have in other areas of the State, but could they be better ? If education is working in WNY, by all means thats great - and it's evident from the pictures that are on the internet that someone is passing yearling bucks with regularity. In Washington County, in these DMUs, we ceratinly could protect a majority of yearlings with a regulation change, meeting the "3 Criteria" set by Kip Adams and QDMA. If a regulation change is made, QDMA is the organization in prime position to provide the Educational Components necessary to make this the best thing that has happened in NY Deer Management since 1911. Tony Rainville Branch President Upper Hudson River Valley Branch QDMA