Feeding Deer

[DANNY-L]

Is this saying it is up to the discression of law enforcement?
http://www.outdoornews.com/November-2012/Feeding-ban-appealed-struck-down-in-Sullivan/

[LanceR]

If you are outside Sullivan County nothing has changed.  If you put food out and it attracts deer or bear (even if that was not your intention) you can be cited based on the judgement of the ECO.  It's no different than any of the other gazillion judgement calls all LEOs make.

I do wish the wording were more concrete though.

Lance

[DANNY-L]

Thanks LanceR thats kinda what I figured. I live at the end of a road that gets no traffic except for snowplows and rec vehichles in the winter. I will say that I have fed deer since 1990 when I moved back here from the army. Several years ago some low-life turned me in and at the time we had 4' of snow here and about 35 deer feeding when the wardens showed up. They checked out how I was feeding them and personally thought it was a good idea but they need to enforce the law which I know they need to do. I was feeding alfalfa bales and had a stack of it in the lean-to off the back of my out small barn. The warden told me to clean up what I have put out and to put it in the lean-to and if the deer want it and go inside to get it that there is nothing that can be done about it because I did not put it out for animals. I haven't had a problem since. They gave me a reccomended $25 fine which I was ok with and the judge dropped the surcharge.

[LanceR]

We discussed this last night at the Region 7 Fish and Wildlife Management Board meeting.  The current regulation was updated back when we had the chronic wasting disease (CWD) issue going on.  Part of the intent was to keep deer and bear from spending abnormal amounts of time in groups to reduce the chance of transmitting CWD or other contagious illnesses.  Another part of it is to reduce or prevent the habituation of deer and bear to humans which is a definite cause of the number of issues around the state of deer overrunning communities.

While some folks don't like the rules and many thoughtful folks would like to see exceptions for areas with little winter browse no one seems able to come up with a solution that the biologists responsible for herd health, the sportsmen, the general public and the ECOs that have to enforce laws and regulations can agree on.  There is also a strong argument to be made that if we need to regularly feed any animal population to get it through the winter that the area has an unnatural and unhealthy overpopulation of those critters.  If they are being regularly fed are they, in fact, wild after all?

So it is a tough issue to sort out.

One thing I would note is that despite some folks claims to the contrary I think the DEC is, overall, doing one heck of a job with wildlife management.  In 1950 the statewide deer take was less than 40,000.  Over the last 12 years the average take has been a bit over 250,000 and that's with a lot less hunters and a lot less un-posted land to work with.

It is only a few decades since turkeys were extirpated from New York and now much of the state has a four bird bag limit.

Lastly, New York had CWD infected deer in both farms and in the wild and through an aggressive $3 million campaign (initially paid out of license dollars but reimbursed from the general fund) we are still the only state that had CWD to ever be certified by the federal government as being CWD free.

There are the same kinds of success stories with non game species and both sport and non sport fish.

BTW, I'm not a DEC employee.  The regional FWMBs are made up of sportsmen reps recommended by the county sportsmen, landowners recommended by the local land owners and reps of the county governments.

I hope you have a great turkey day.

Lance

[DANNY-L]

That was a good write up and thanks for sharing it. My first thought was that I think for the most part that in the 50-60's people took deer for the most part year round as needed for the family so the actual count is probably quite higher although I know in the 70's when I started hunting it was very bad,think I hunted 5+ years before seeing a deer. Also I hear it around here and read about deer in the villages and towns but my thoughs are that in many places the people are the one's moving into what was the wildlife habitat.

[LanceR]

Danny, one example of a problem area is centered on Ithaca.  There is relatively little public access, several thousand acres of Cornell U. campus,  research farms and forests, suburban sprawl etc.  Much of the area has deer populations well over 100 per square mile when 15-16 is likely the correct density.

The Focused Deer Management Area there has a daily bag limit of two anterless deer per day in any open deer season with no possession limit.  The archery, regular and late archery/muzzleloading seasons run from 1 October to 18 December and there is an additional season in January.

Other than the aggressive deer management program at Cornell the only place most folks can access for hunting is two state parks with archery hunting only so I think the target herd reduction for this year(the first year)  is still only 10% or so.

Part of the Cayuga-Thompkins Co-operative Hunting Area is in the focused harvest area so that is an option too.  http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/71870.html

Come on down and thin a few out....

In the Village of Lansing the controlled archery hunting to thin the herd actually sometimes results in hunters set up on decks and patios with the homeowners watching out the patio windows with their morning coffee.  I am only just getting involved with the village hunt.  If things go well the Venison Donation Coalition will be getting some extra deer from me this year.

You are correct in that "parcelization" of once rural lands has resulted in significant loss of hunting area.  Our town is basically on 1 mile square road grids.  When you draw the 500' bubble around each all the recently built homes it cuts the huntable space down quite dramatically.

Lance
 

[The Hermit]

I don't feed the deer, but one two acre garden I have does not have a fence around it. They love sunflowers, potato leaves, brussel sprouts, beans, standing corn.......
Also, I would like to mention that back in the 40's and 50's, we had a lot more snow depth and got it early in the season. Sad to see a deer unable to move with its tonge hanging out in a snow drift. Now most years up here, there has been little accumulation and it's easier living for the deer.
I would much rather see the deer and black bear on my land than the DEC. I've posted it all now, but I digress. We probably should'nt feed either of them. 
 
  The Hermit