ORIGINAL: ghemry
Here is an article. From what I hear from NY hunters pretty right on. About not seeing deer
No big surprise..........I have been hearing........and saying this for years.
DAVENPORT — When one hunter comes into Losie’s Gun Shop and complains about a lack of deer in the area, he is probably a bad hunter, owner Jim Losie said Wednesday.
"But when you get 300 guys coming here and saying it, you know it’s a problem," Losie said.
Sounds familiar
The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced Tuesday that hunters harvested 14 percent fewer deer in 2005 than in 2004.
In Chenango, Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie counties, the drop was 11 percent. But DEC statistics show a 49 percent decline in the area deer take since 2002.
About average............just a complete mockery.
They don’t want to waste their money in New York, he said.
Potentially the only thing that could save this mess......but I even doubt that.......I'm sure revenue from other sources trumps this big time.
DEC officials said the statewide drop is the result of specific management actions designed to bring the deer population down from the high levels of 2002 and 2003. But they said severe winters resulted in deer population declines that were greater than expected.
Nothing quite like a double lie to turn your stomach. They did not present the more doe permits in 2002 etc as a way to slaughter the herd numbers down........They said those additional permits were necessary to continue to "maintain" the ever growing herd......in other words we have to kill more just to keep up. Lie number 2 is the ever popular "severe" winter crutch. What a crock. I have lived in NY all my life......those winters weren't any worse then the average. I saw no dramatic increase in dead fawns or winter starvations...........I always have to laugh at the DEC's garbage about "harsh" winters...........how come they never mention the "mild" winters and say "Oh know, we are gonna have too many deer now". Nope, it's always "too few deer"???..........play the tough winter card. As lame as lame gets.
Losie said coyotes are one of the major causes in the decline in this area.
"The fawns are just getting riddled by coyotes," Losie said.
He is 100% correct.
However, a former DEC commissioner said Wednesday there are greater factors at work.
"Since 1960, we lost 100,000 small dairy farms," Michael Zagata of West Davenport said.
The brushy, early stages of reforestation on the former farmland, as well as active logging, created ideal conditions for deer and other wildlife, Zagata said.
"We got used to it," Zagata said.
But as the hunters of that time aged, the landscape also aged, he said.
The state now has 10 million acres of pole timber, Zagata said, which limits sunlight to the forest floor.
"No sunlight, no plants. No plants, no deer food," Zagata said.
WOW........hard to imagine with such a dismal enviornmental outlook that we had record numbers of deer in 2002. Just another line of BS. This would hold some merit if we were discussing a gradual decline over decades............not a massive slaughter over 3 years. Just plain stupid.
But DEC officials said they don’t want a return to the deer population levels of 2002 because of concern over damage to agriculture, forest regeneration, landscaping or vehicle accidents.
And there you have it folks...........right there in black and white. They wanted the herd slaughtered but knew the only way to accomplish that was to lie and trick the hunters into doing it for them while being under the impression that they were "maintaining" an ever growing herd.......not destroying it and hunting for years to come. Pretty sick.
Zagata said there is no easy solution to the deer-herd question.
Yes there is.........QUIT, and take all your buddies with you. Then we can hire some COMPETENT biologists that actually may consider the interests of NY hunters as part of their deer herd policy.
"We actually need to get the (deer) numbers lower in conjunction with active forest management on a large scale," Zagata said. "Believe it or not, we have too many deer for the habitat to support."
We are in big trouble with these clowns at the wheel. These are sad times right now and unfortunately I see no break in the clouds.