And to finish off my posting duties for the day (5 in a row)...

A new thought....

Has anyone heard what the DEC's opinion is on the harvest numbers being down? I have a gut feeling that this will become a factor in the debates now.

I believe that even though the DEC anticpated lower numbers overall, in both harvest and herd numbers, that they were caught off foot.

Some DEC employees in region 8 ( one of the powerhouse regions for both categories) have remarked that the herd numbers are in fact below 1 million in the state, and the DEC may have overestimated the herd by X percent due to various issues ( weather patterns on a micro climate level were a large factor, ie areas measured in small square miles had tremendously different winters than land a few miles away).

I suspect that if the numbers are low enough, we may dodge having to address a doe harvest week for at least another year.