I believe you know where I stand (my letter is in the NE forum). I don't necessarily dissagree with much of what you say. I know about the length thing (mine was long as well).

1) I am not a huge fan of AR but I don't think it is necessarily bad either (how's that for wishy washy). If they went with a min 3 on one side, I don't think it would hurt things too much and help in the long run
2) earn a buck would never fly, especially for residents
3) I honestly am not a fan of lowering the age. it's not that i do not want youth to get involved. I just believ that MOST kids that age are just not ready to handle the responsibility of hunting. I'd rather see some youth hunts. if they were to go to a lower age, i think it should definitely be supervised by an adult hunter until they are 16 or so.
4) early ML - if they are to have an early ML saeason I would rather see it well before prime bow hunting (Oct 1st?) and last for a week, but if they didn't have one I would be fine with taht too (as long as they extended the late season considerably - there needs to some equity in seasons - $16 for a 42 day bow season; $10 for 7 day ML??????).

I think one thing you should pursue is getting some of your neighboring farms to create a "co-op" of sorts. If you can get several of them to buy into some type of management plan, you could better control "your" herd. if you had, say, 500 ac. (1000 ac would be better) you could institure many of the ideas and manage for what you (as a group, with some compromise) want. Just a thought.

Don't know where the closest meeting to you will be regarding the deer issues (probably Oneonta?). Ours is Feb 8th in Binghamton.

FORGOT I HAD ALREADY BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD

here's the link to my letter if anyone is interested.

http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/tm.asp?m=910951