Syracuse.com - Figura writing about sportsmen license sales and the sterilization of deer

[HuntingNY-News]

- I'm holding an hour-long panel discussion on Aug. 15 with a DEC, SUNY ESF and a nuisance wildlife specialist at the newspaper on the subject of "Urban Wildlife." Stay tuned for more information.

The summer is flying by.

New York State on Monday will begin selling hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for the the 2013-2014 season.

I'm also working this week and the next on the following:

- A village in Westchester County is planning a different approach to controlling the explosive white-tailed deer population. Rather than declare open season on the animals, Highwater-on-Hudson intends to capture and inject female white-tailed deer with a contraceptive made from pigs' ovaries. Urban deer continue to be a problem locally and sterilization is often brought up as an option by those who oppose hunting or other lethal approaches to the problem. What has been the track record of other sterilization efforts across the state?

- I'm holding an hour-long panel discussion on Aug. 15 with a DEC, SUNY ESF and a nuisance wildlife specialist at the newspaper on the subject of "Urban Wildlife." Half of the discussion will be dedicated to deer .....the other half to other animals (skunks, possums, bats, coyotes, etc..). More information to come.

Other subjects:

- CNY shoreline fishing hot spots . Thinking about doing a piece on public piers that stretch out into the Fingerlakes (Ones at Skaneateles, Owasco and Seneca lakes.. are there any on Cayuga?)

- Great CNY canoeing/kayaking stretches

- Panfish lesson: How do tell a sunny, from a bluegill, from a pumpkinseed?

- High-quality,high-comfort camping for those who don't like to rough it.

- The CNY triathlon culture. Triathlons, and the people who do them, are a big thing and more and more people are getting into them.

- An update on the Cornell Ornithology lab and its most recent compilation of recordings of more than 4,000 bird calls from across the world.

- Which fishing rod do you use for bass fishing? The choices today are numerous and ever-growing.

- The Cornell Vet School emergency room, and all the strange cases of domestic and wild animals that it deals with on a daily basis.

THE FIGURA CHALLENGE

I laid out the "The Figura Challenge" over the Memorial Day weekend -- challenging readers to to check out 15 Central New York outdoors destinations during the summer. Several readers have already taken me up on it and I'm getting comments and pictures. It's not too late to get started!

Each Thursday on this blog through the summer, I'll give an update on reactions, stories and photos submitted by readers about their travels to these destinations.

Send your impressions and photos of the places you visit on the list to [email protected],

ANYTHING ELSE READERS OF THIS REPORT WOULD LIKE TO SEE ME WRITE ABOUT?

The effectiveness of this report is two-fold. First, it lets readers know what's coming up story-wise. It also allows readers a chance to affect coverage and provide sources for upcoming stories. Bottom line: Keep in touch and give input. You could make a difference as to what appears week to week on the outdoors page! Email me at [email protected] or call 470-6066.

If you want to join The Post-Standard's Outdoors Group and get this emailed directly to you, subscribe here..

FIGURA ON FACEBOOK:

For those who are on Facebook, I also have a PS Outdoors page, which I check several times daily for feedback and story ideas. I also post personal fishing and hunting and other outdoors-related photos from time to time and I ask members to do the same. When you join, please be sure and hit the "like" button.

-

-

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog