News
Albany - The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) recently adopted a revised deer management plan (www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7211.html#DeerPlan) details the intended direction for the next 5 years of deer management and deer hunting in New York. The plan included a number of strategies that would affect deer hunting seasons and increase hunter opportunity.
The deer plan did not propose any changes to the Southern Zone Regular season, which will begin on November 17, 2012.
Otherwise, for many of the hunting related strategies of the deer plan to be implemented (for example, begin the Southern Zone bow season on October 1, establish a youth hunt for deer, allow DMPs to be used during the Northern Zone bow and muzzleloader seasons, and establish mandatory antler restrictions in seven additional WMUs in the Catskills), NYSDEC must amend regulations through the formal rulemaking process. The process is outlined on the NYS Dept. of State's website (www.dos.ny.gov/info/rulediagram.html) and essentially involves publishing the proposed regulations in the State Register , a 45-day public comment period, DEC review and assessment of the comment and DEC determination whether the proposed rules require modification or can be adopted. NYSDEC is in the early internal stages of this process now and hopes to proceed so that adopted regulations may be in place by late spring, well ahead of the 2012 hunting seasons.
