Syracuse.com - DEC new deer management plan drafted after talking to/polling hunters and hunter groups across the state

[HuntingNY-News]

Through the fall and early winter of 2009, the DEC hosted 20 meetings across the state seeking input from more than 1,000 people who attended. Input was also collected by mail and via electronic forms posted on the DEC Web site. Additional surveys were taken of New York hunters and specific hunter groups.

Nick Lisi/The Post-StandardxxxxxxThe state Department of Environmental Conservation announced this past week that it has a adopted a new, five-year white-tailed deer management plan for the state.

DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said the plan provides “strategic direction for out staff over the next five years and will help us focus our efforts where we can best meet the biological and social demands associated with deer. This plan emphasizes the importance of hunting for deer management, and we are particularly excited to create new opportunities for young deer hunters.

“We are also cognizant of the significant ecological impacts associated with deer, and we are eager to more fully bring out knowledge of these impacts into the population management process.”

Through the fall and early winter of 2009, the DEC hosted 20 meetings across the state seeking input from more than 1,000 people who attended. Input was also collected by mail and via electronic forms that were available on the DEC Web site. Additional surveys were taken of New York hunters and specific hunter groups and on several issues such as use of crossbows, altering buck and doe take restrictions, changes to hunting seasons.

“The survey was designed to elicit hunter opinions about potential regulation changes in light of possible trade-offs and effects associated with each change,” the report said.

A draft plan was released this past June, followed by 45 days of public comment.

The DEC reviewed comments on that plan, along with survey results, and made several changes before releasing last week’s plan. Among the changes, the DEC announced it will adopt a 5-year cycle for evaluating its deer population objectives.

Previously, in general it did so every 10 years. To view a complete version of the DEC’s 57-page deer management plan, see the DEC's Web siteWhile many of the strategies outlined in the plan will take several years to develop, the DEC intends “to begin rule-making to implement a number of hunting-related aspects prior to the 2012-2013 hunting seasons.”

Among them:

- Establishing a youth deer hunt. The DEC wants to do this, according to the plan, but the details must still be worked out. The original draft of the plan placed the hunt for ages “15 and younger” during the three-day Columbus Day weekend, which would have put it during the early part of the bowhunting season. That was scrapped following complaints by bowhunters and others.

- Starting the Southern Zone bow season Oct. 1.The change would enhance the state’s bow hunting by moving the season opener up 15 days, increasing its total length from roughly a month, to a month and a half. This change follows the lowering this fall of the minimum age for bow hunting for deer from 14 to 12.

- Expanding mandatory antler restrictions into seven wildlife management units in Southeastern New York. A new law this summer established mandatory antler restrictions in the portion of Wildlife Management Unit 3A, which lies south and west of state Route 28 in Delaware, Sullivan and Ulster counties and includes portions of the towns of Andes and Middletown. The law prohibits hunters from taking any antlered deer except those that have at least one antler with at least three points.

The law applies to all public and private lands and all deer hunting seasons, but hunters younger than 17 may take any antlered deer with at least one antler measuring three or more inches.

The DEC’s new deer management plan could expand those regulations into seven more wildlife management units in adjacent lands. (No such regulations are mentioned in the report for anywhere in Central New York.)

A common misunderstanding is that the DEC controls all things related to deer. That’s not true.

The DEC is granted authority by state law to establish rules and regulations for most, but not all aspects of deer hunting and deer management.

The following are among hunting practices/rule changes that require laws passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor to take place. Each item includes the DEC’s stance as reflected in the deer management plan.

A uniform minimum age of 12 for all the state’s hunters: Currently, the minimum age for small game and bowhunters in this state is 12. The minimum age to hunt big game (deer/bear) with a firearm is 14.

The DEC “strongly recommends that the minimum age for youth to hunt with a firearm be set to a uniform age of 12 years for all game species, including big game.”

Expanded use of crossbows The current crossbow law, which allows use of crossbows in the regular firearms and late muzzleloading season, but not during the regular bowhunting season, “does not address deer management needs, nor is it consistent with hunter preferences.”

The DEC supports, “use of crossbows during any hunting season in which other hunting equipment is allowed and recommends that eligibility to hunt with a crossbow be the same as eligibility to hunt with a vertical bow.”

Reduce the setback distance for discharge of vertical bows and crossbows to 150 feet. Currently, all firearms, vertical bows (long bows, recurve bows and crossbows) may not discharged within 500 feet of certain structures without obtaining permission of specific property owners. A circle with a 500 foot radius encompasses land about 18 acres in size and “in many parts of the state, significant bowhunting opportunities exist on parcels of land this size and smaller — particularly areas where rural and suburban land interface, or in individual communities which have expressed an interest in the use of archery as a tool to controlling deer numbers. The DEC supports reducing the setback distance for bowhunting equipment from 500 to 150 feet.

Enhanced law enforcement and increased penalties for deer hunting violations The current penalties for violating the state’s Fish and Wildlife Law have been in place since 1996 “and no longer serve as sufficient deterrents, “ according to the DEC. The deer management plan calls for changes to the penalties for violations, noting “without a penalty increase, some persons will continue to decide that hunting without the appropriate license is more economical than purchasing a license, even if they are caught and fined.”

Currently, the maximum penalty for a violation of most deer hunting laws is a $250 fine and/or 15 days in jail.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog