Got my 2013 Bowhunter Sighting Log in today's mail

[fasteddie]

I have been participating for about 13 years . They sent me a couple of patches in the past few years .

 

 

[Five Seasons]

i have no idea what this is.

[First-light]

I have them also Eddie. Been doing it for a long time and enjoy it. Kind of keeps my memory sharp!! lol

Belo, The DEC ask a certain amount of Bowhunters to do a survey each time they go out in the field. How many doe, Buck, Turkey and other animals you see. You fill in the survey at the end of each day in the field and mail it back at the end of bow season. You get a patch after 5 years.

[fasteddie]

Belo , they send the sighting logs to us Elite hunters to fill out . This is the 15th year they have been doing this .

 

Last year state-wide , there were 3527 participants that hunted 179,372 hours .

[Five Seasons]

according to my avatar i'm elite

 

that's cool though, didn't know that.

[gjs4]

do they inflate your numbers assuming you dont report all the deer you see like the do the kill take?

[fasteddie]

As far as I know , they use the data that is submitted . Why the heck would someone want to lie about the numbers ?

[PostedBoys Gallego]

Very cool! I wish I could get a DEC Bear patch every year also! I'm going to start this bowhunting log.

 

Notice how they upgraded you from 5 to 10 years? First you were hunting a treestand, now you are on the ground in a ghillie suit!

 

Are you sewing them into anything in particular?

Edited September 28, 2013 by PostedBoys Gallego

[GreeneHunter]

Nice Patches  ! 

[nyslowhand]

Okay, just to set the record straight - there's nothing elite about the Bowhunter's Sightings Log! Request to participate and most likely you'll get a log in the mail. Subsequent years you'll get one in the mail automatically. I haven't participated in 3 years & still get one in the mail every year.

 

I participated for a few years, until I realized I was providing biased data for their studies. Hunt a single 60ac parcel, so if I report seeing 100 deer over xxhrs, the DEC has no clue if that's 100 different deer or 4 deer 25 times. Lot of other factors that aren't taken into consideration that could biased the raw data provided. Ie: Annual weather pattern changes, availability of agr crops, local terrain or habitat, specific hours you hunt, size of area you hunt, number of stands/blinds within a single reporting area, previous winter (kill) conditions, etc. Suppose the log might be useful if data were provided over a peroid of many years for the same specific location for the DEC to predict population trends, but.... I prefer to keep a personal journal for my own reference. This way I can input weather conditions, stand location, specific deer (bucks) sighted, exact day/time, travel routes/patterns, behavoir, rub/scrape locations, etc.

 

FYI - What the Bowhunter's Sightings Log data is used for (per DEC):

"The New York Bowhunter Sighting Log is designed to provide information on long-term population trends for selected wildlife species. The log was started on an experimental basis in several areas of the state in 1995 and expanded to cover the entire state in the fall 1998. These type of data are collected by New York and a number of other states as an index of wildlife populations. As data accumulate, we are better able to track population changes and improve our ability to make management decisions for a variety of species."