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.
That said, it is important to understand that several recommendations of the deer plan require amendment of laws, not regulations. These issues are described in Appendix 5 of the deer plan and include: establishing a uniform minimum age of 12 years for all hunters, expanded use of crossbows, reduction of the setback distance for discharge of vertical bows and crossbows, increased penalties for deer hunting violations, and other statutory issues. Statutory changes (changes to laws) must be enacted by the New York State Legislature and signed by the Governor. NYSDEC does not have authority to change laws.
The final deer plan is committed to implementing a special youth deer hunt without identifying the specific dates when the youth hunt might occur. Rather we committed to continue working with stakeholders to select an appropriate time for the youth hunt. To that end, we decided to ask those most directly affected by this initiative, namely junior hunters and the adults that would mentor them, about their opinions on the timing of a youth deer hunt. We conducted a mail survey in which we presented junior hunters with five options for a youth hunt, including: a weekend in early September, a weekend in late September, the 1st full weekend in October, the 3-day Columbus Day weekend, or the 1st two-three weeks of October including weekends. Notable findings:
- 90% of respondents indicated that they would likely participate in a youth deer hunt;
- Season options in October were preferred over options in September;
- Columbus Day weekend received the greatest overall preference.
Full results of the survey can be reviewed at www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/74971.html .
Formal proposal of the regulation changes are expected sometime in March 2012, the details will be posted on the NYSDEC website (www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/propregulations.html).
NYSDEC is in the end stages of compiling and reviewing deer and bear harvest data from the 2011-12 seasons; deer hunting just concluded last week on Long Island. It is expected that a final harvest numbers available by the end February, sooner than available compared to the past few years.
