I always get a kick out of the folks like the antler restriction proponents, some of the quality deer management guys and others who claim that the DEC and NYS can't manage deer properly. If my memory is correct the DEC website has deer harvest data back to 1900 and it shows that 4,800 deer were taken in that year. How could anyone expect to be taken seriously when they claim that despite a steady increase in deer population and harvests over the last century that the DEC is incompetent? Especially since this success was in the face of skyrocketing parcelization of our rural counties, a significant drop in numbers of hunters etc.
Once you draw the 500' safety bubble around all those relatively new suburban and rural homes and businesses and subtract the amount of private land that was open to hunting a few years ago but that is now posted you can see how much less huntable land there is now compared to even 30 years ago. Think on this for a moment: last deer season we harvested 48 times as many deer as our great, great grandfathers did in 1900. In my eyes the increase in deer and bear take is flat out impressive. I wish the other departments of our state government could be that successful.
By the way, there is now black bear hunting east of the Hudson, starting this year, for the first time in many decades. Every year a few more counties or wildlife management units get opened to bear hunting. Bear continue to expand their ranges into the Finger Lakes and the northern parts of Western New York.
Lance
