Yesterday, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC for short) released their report card on the 2010 whitetail deer hunting season and it's worth a read.
The overall news was good. The total harvest stood at about 230,000 deer, up 3% over 2009 numbers. The DEC's commissioner Martens said:
The overall news was good. The total harvest stood at about 230,000 deer, up 3% over 2009 numbers. The DEC's commissioner Martens said:
The next statistics were what surprised me the most. You see, New York is no Illinois. We're not exactly known for our quality deer management practices. My anecdotal experience is that most Empire State hunters think our herd has a horrible gender balance and that the overwhelming majority of their peers never fill their doe tags and shoot Labrador-sized button bucks at the drop of a hat.
I'm happy to report that the statistics do not bare that out. New York hunters actually took more does than bucks in 2010 (123,000 vs 107,000). So, even if our herd isn't quite gender balanced yet, we're at least headed in the right direction. Even more promising is the data on the age of bucks taken, 45% of the buck harvest was at least 2.5 years old, a huge improvement over last year's 33%.
Hopefully these figures represent the beginning of a long term trend, and not just a one year fluke...maybe the future of New York deer hunting is looking good after all.
-K.M.
I'm happy to report that the statistics do not bare that out. New York hunters actually took more does than bucks in 2010 (123,000 vs 107,000). So, even if our herd isn't quite gender balanced yet, we're at least headed in the right direction. Even more promising is the data on the age of bucks taken, 45% of the buck harvest was at least 2.5 years old, a huge improvement over last year's 33%.
Hopefully these figures represent the beginning of a long term trend, and not just a one year fluke...maybe the future of New York deer hunting is looking good after all.
-K.M.
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