ORIGINAL: alloutdoors
I hesitate to tell you because I think you will then just ignore anything I have to say, but I have worked for the DEC off and on for the past four years.
Doing what?
Anyway, do you really think that we aren't aware that not all deer are called in??? Trust me, this is taken into account. It's quite simple actually. During deer season DEC employees spend a large amount of time at deer processors checking harvested deer. All the information is recorded and the deer are aged. Then all the tag numbers are checked against tags that were actually reported, this tells us the % of people who aren't reporting their tags.
What about all the guys like me and my buddies that process our own deer...........not so simple I guess.
Let's say 10,000 deer are looked checked at processors, of that number it is found that 9,000 were reported and 1,000 weren't. So, 10% of the deer being shot aren't being reported, and for every 9 deer that are called into DECALS, one more is assumed to go unreported and is added to the tally.
That is EXTREMELY innacurrate when you consider all the variables..........especially if they are using such a small sample and extrapolating it out to cover the entire herd. The percent error has to be +or-25% at least.
As far as what you are saying about seeing deer where you hunt over the last 17 years... habitat changes. As the habitat changes the deer move around.
I hunt thousands of acres of state forest in 3 counties..........last year I hunted 5 counties covering 180 miles apart. The woods I hunt haven't changed at all, no developements, same farms, same crops, same creeks, same everything including less deer.
Sorry but the DEC isn't concerned with making sure that you always see the same number of deer on whatever piece of land you happen to hunt, that just isn't realistic.
Well, they damn well should be!!!! Considering I hunt over 7,000 acres of THEIR state forest that THEY are supposed to be taking care of. What the hell ARE they worried about???..........deer eating people's bushes in the burbs??
Now, if suddenly all the deer were disappearing from an entire WMU, that would be something that the DEC would act on.
Glad to see an entire WMU has to get wiped clean in a flash for them to realize they have a problem. I guess 9 out of 10 hunters saying they aren't seeing good deer numbers isn't good enough for them.
Here's the thing, and try not to take this personally, every hunter thinks he's an expert on deer and knows exactly what should be done about managing them. It's a really arrogant position to have, and is quite offensive to those who actually went to school and earned a degree in the wildlife field, many of whom are also hunters I might add. Apparently all that money we spent on our education was a waste, we could have just climbed into a deer stand for a few years and then we would know all the secrets of the natural world.
BLAH BLAH BLAH.............I have more degrees then I can shake a stick at........you know what that means??? NOTHING. Not if they aren't backed up by proper actions........which is something the NYDEC has yet to show me.
Did you even notice that you followed your "arrogant position" statement with one of your own dismissing the value of decades of first hand experience in the woods as if it were meaningless because it didn't come from a book at a University?? You may want to watch that in the future as it really tarnishes your scoldings
Imagine if I showed up where you work and started telling you how you didn't know what the hell you were doing and how I was so much smarter than you, and how I could do your job so much better... would that piss you off? I think it would, and it should.
Not if you and the vast majority of people just like you had valid claims based on first hand knowledgable experiences.
Your problem is being to quick with the "crackpot" label. You should try and listen first BEFORE dismissing people as idiots because they aren't wearing a ranger patch.
The majority of people at the DEC are well educated professionals who have worked hard to get where they are and they know what they are doing.
Then why are we told every year that the herd is growing and growing yet that isn't what hunters are seeing in the field?? BTW 90% of DEC officers I have met are just wanna be cops/troopers. The local officer by my brothers house just got fired for poaching [
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Of course none of this means anything because I'm "in" on the mass conspiracy by the DEC to do in hunters and ruin hunting.
It's not about ruining hunting..........it's about money just like everything else. The DEC does it's best to tell everybody out there, hunters or not exactly what they want to hear so the money keeps rolling in to the state. The herd is growing, deer-car accidents are down, crop damage is up, forests are thriving, and on and on.
One or two more years like this past year and the DEC will go public with something to ease the minds of all these guys not seeing deer like they used to.........they will have to because people are not gonna accept seasons like that for very long.