Syracuse.com - Is it finally time to have some kind of moose hunting season in New York?

[HuntingNY-News]

Howie Cushing, president of the New York State Conservation Council, is eager to get the wheels in motion.

Submitted photoJim Snizek, of Liverpool, poses with an 800-pound bull moose he shot during a September hunting trip to Hideaway Lodge in New Foundland, Canada.

¦There’s hundreds of moose running around loose in this state’s North County — anywhere from 500 to 800, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Is it time for some kind of hunting season, if only on a limited basis?

Howie Cushing, president of the New York State Conservation Council, is eager to get the wheels in motion.

Cushing said the Conservation Council, which serves as an advocate for hunting, fishing, trapping and the Second Amendment, has been lobbying unnamed state legislators to draft a bill that would allow for limited moose hunting in certain areas of the state.’

“We already have commitments,” he said, “but we’d like to make this a bi-partisan legislation, seeing if we could get signers from both sides of the aisle. We hope to have something out in the next month, month and a half.”

He said there’s several reasons behind the push. Creating a hunting season would give the state’s hunters new opportunities, it would allow for better management and a “healthier” moose herd and it could result in more money for the state Department of Environmental Conservation in its management of the moose population.

Cushing emphasize that nothing is cast in concrete and that ultimately his group favors leaving it to the DEC to decide what’s the best way to manage the moose population. He said the legislation he’s talking about getting passed would give the DEC the tools it needs to do that.

“Perhaps there’s a way to get give out tags or permits that would be obtained through a lottery system,” he said, similar to what’s done in states like Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Rick Georgeson, a spokesman for the DEC, confirmed it does not currently have the regulatory authority to allow moose hunting and that it would take legislative action to give DEC that authority.

Gordon Batcheller and the DEC’s Wildlife Bureau Chief, said his department at this point is monitoring the moose population.

“When we feel there’s been appropriate recovery, (hunting) is something we’ll consider in the future,” he said.

Batcheller stressed before any hunting season is discussed, the DEC needs to get a handle on the baseline population and growth rate of the animals. At this point, he said, there’s more work that needs to be done.

“We have evidence the population is growing, (but) we’re not sure how fast,” he said.

One indication of a sizeable herd is moose/motor vehicle accidents.

“Occasionally, you’ll hear of a moose/car collision,” he said. “We’re getting about 1 to 3 every other year. It’s been on the low side. There have been no fatals.”

He added the state Department of Conservation is working to put up signs on roadways where moose are known to crossways, urging motorists to slow down.

It’s the DEC’s job to be the authoritative source on the status moose in this state and to gather the facts to give lawmakers and others a clear picture of their presence on the landscape, the implications for interactions with humans and the implications for tourism and viewing, Batcheller said.

He said the DEC is asking citizens to report sightings and has been distributing diaries to hunters in the Adirondacks to record their observations.

Batcheller and Georgeson said there are plans, along with funding, to conduct aerial flights this winter to count individual animals, their tracks as well as inventory suitable moose habitat in an effort to estimate moose density.

“We are currently waiting for better snow cover before we begin the flights,” Georgeson said.

Apart from the hunting crowd, there are people who’d just like to see and photograph a moose.

“We have a lot of folks who come in here and ask about that,” said Mike Farmer, tourism publicity director for the Town of Webb in Old Forge.

“That service has not popped up yet, though. The (Adirondack Park) in this region is not a zoo. There’s no guarantee that you’re going to see one. Actually, there’s a small change if you go out on any given day that you’re going to see a moose.”

Farmer noted the local weekly newspaper from time to time reports on the location of moose in the area.

“We had one in the Moose Plains area that was hanging out around Helldiver Pond,” Farmer said. “People who went out in the early morning had a good chance of seeing it.”

A recent published story in New York Outdoor News reported that Ed Reed, a DEC big game biologist in Region 5, said there was a sizeable moose population in parts of Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties — particularly around Upper Chateaugay Lake.

Tammy Demmers, who works at Bill’s Bait and Beer near the lake, said she’s been living in the area for 12 years and hasn’t seen a moose yet. She said she’s talked to people who’ve seen them, but hasn’t heard of anyone serving as a guide for people who just want to take their pictures.

Susan Hafter, clerk for the town of Malone, said the idea of guides for photographers and other non-hunters is “a cool idea,” but hasn’t heard of anyone doing it.

Hafter said she’s talked to a lot of hunters this fall and “the talk is that they will be eventually be a moose hunting season.

“Most people (up here), though, don’t agree with that,” she said. “They’re not plentiful enough.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog