RE: PINE BUSH (ALBANY NY)
The Pine Bush is a wonderful area - and the private lands bordering the "official" areas of the pine Bush are great.
I did my Thesis on the regeneration of scrub oak due to Fire vs. clearcutting as management tools in the 1980s - I saw some really great bucks there. I never hunted it once - I had other areas to hunt - and there was always people like me bouncing around ( and karner blue butterfly lovers) in the Pine Bush. The public sections were difficult to hunt for this reason.
The sheer amounts of acorns from the low growth scrub oaks made it a whitetail deer paradise. Follow the blue jays for ripe acorn areas!
FH