Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

[RTF]

I remember when this was released this past spring. I have not heard anymore about it and was wondering if anyone has ?

Here is the story released in April 2004

Proposal calls for year-round farmland hunting

Plan to reduce crop damage caused by deer

Staff and Wire Reports

Deer have eaten themselves out of their welcome on many New York farms, prompting a legislative proposal to allow hunting year-round on farmland to reduce damage to crops by hungry whitetail.

With a Cornell University study estimating deer cause $58.8 million in damage annually to New York crops, Assemblyman Clifford Crouch said current state programs to shoot deer on farmland are inadequate.

Crouch, R-Guilford, saw the damage firsthand when he ran a dairy farm in Bainbridge in the 1970s and 1980s.

Deer all but ruined an alfalfa field, reducing his second growth from the normal 30 inches tall to less than a foot by foraging on it every night. They kept mowing it off," he said.

According to the Cornell study, hay, alfalfa and grain crops were most susceptible to the appetite of deer, with about half the farmers participating in a wide-ranging survey reporting such damage.

An estimated $20 million in other damage was done by deer to nursery products and fruit trees, and even suburban neighborhoods are beset by foraging deer.

Farmers reported the worst damage on Long Island and in the lower Hudson Valley.

Salvatore Licata, who farms 350 acres in Hartwick, said he doesn't have many deer eating his crops but he knows other area farmer that do.

"I think it's a good idea," he said of Crouch's legislation. "Though I don't see where they hurt us much."

He said with fewer farms, the deer herd has become more concentrated.

"They go where the good land is — a good farm where all the alfalfa is — instead of woods and abandoned property," he said.

Joe Whittaker, a Delhi farmer, said he's had some trouble with deer bothering his corn but more problems with bears.

"I would say it wouldn't hurt to give a farmer another tool," he said.

Though he hunts, he said he's never applied for extra deer permits under an existing Department of Environmental Conservation program that requires farmers to show local DEC agents crop damage caused by deer before they can get special permits for the regular hunting season.

The proposal from Crouch would require farmers to get permits from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to shoot deer on their land out of season. Unlike the state's current "nuisance" deer program, farmers would find special hunting privileges "readily accessible," Crouch said.

Farmers could shoot deer themselves or let hunters on their property.

"There are so few farms left in the county where they get good eating — they come, then they scatter," Whittaker said. "We try to plant enough for the deer and the bear and hope there's something left over for ourselves."

Dominic Gullow, a Bovina farmer and occasional hunter, said Sunday that local farmers with deer problems probably don't wait for DEC permission.

"I'm not naming names, but a lot of guys take care of the problem themselves," he said.

Deer don't make much of an impact on the nearly 500 acres he farms, Gullow said.

"They eat the crops, but I don't know as they do it to the point where it's a big problem," he said. "To sit out there and start shooting seems a bit excessive. It's one of those things of nature you have to live with."

Jeffrey Williams, the New York Farm Bureau's legislative director, said year-round hunting would be very attractive to farmers in New York.

"There are a lot of deer - too many deer, some say - and they're eating farm crops like crazy," he said.

Michael Markarian, the national president of the Fund for Animals, said shooting more deer isn't the answer.

"They adapt very well to suburban life and they reproduce and they compensate for reductions probably the best of any species," Markarian said. "More hunting might result in a short-term population reduction, but it also means that the remaining deer will have a higher reproductive rate the next spring. ... It actually triggers a higher reproductive growth."

Cornell said 55 percent of farmers surveyed said there are more deer now than five years ago. Twenty percent said deer were doing $5,000 or more in damage to their crops every year.

Markarian's group favors non-hunting means of keeping deer away from crops, such as the use of fencing and repellents and having farmers work with local Cooperative Extension agents on other methods.

A look at agricultural damage caused by deer

Associated Press

Findings of the latest survey of economic damage caused by white-tailed deer to agriculture in New York.

The survey was for 2002:

• Estimated deer damage was most costly for grain ($13.6 million), nursery products ($10.5 million), tree fruits ($9.4 million) and alfalfa ($7.3 million). Statewide, deer damage cost farmers about $58.8 million.

• Deer damage was worst in the lower Hudson Valley and on Long Island. Damage per acre on Long Island ($111) was five times the statewide average. In the lower Hudson Valley the damage-per-acre figure was $68.

Of farmers listing wildlife damage as a major concern, most said deer are the worst culprit followed by wild turkeys and geese. Farmers also listed damage from groundhogs, raccoons and blackbirds.

• Statewide, farmers said damage from deer was negligible (37 percent of the survey's respondents) or their presence was welcome (39 percent). Twenty-four percent of the farmers involved, however, said deer damage was "unreasonable."

• Just more than half of respondents (57 percent) said deer damage was $1,000 or less a year. Fourteen percent said it was between $5,000 and $10,000 and 7 percent said damage was higher than $10,000 annually.

SOURCE: Cornell University Department of Natural Resources.

[Swamphunter]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

Lets just wipe em all right out of the state of NY. Gte rid of them all! That might finally make the insurance companies happy.

I would rather the government give these farmers a tax credit or refund to repair the damage, maybe out of the money we pay for our licenses, then to open the season year round.

[Doc]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

Of course, the one question the article did not talk about is how many of these farmers keep their land posted up tighter than a drum. Before any of these drastic measures are put in place, it should be absolutely part of the deal that they make their land completely open for hunters first. And I'm not talking leases either.

Doc

[NY911Bowhunter]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

well, at least we'll still have turkeys......

[rossman]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

This is just another example of how stupid our state officials are!!!!

[Swamphunter]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

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Of course, the one question the article did not talk about is how many of these farmers keep their land posted up tighter than a drum. Before any of these drastic measures are put in place, it should be absolutely part of the deal that they make their land completely open for hunters first. And I'm not talking leases either.

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I don't want to hear anything about crop damage...when farmers, and I live on a farm, start putting ads into the papers for hunters to hunt their property then I will listen. ONly then will I believe that the deer are the sole culprets. Around here the bear trash the corn as well as teh coons, not the deer. In one night a bear can wipe out a 20'x20' area of corn. That x how many bears in some areas.

Let's not even talk about coons and the damage that they cause.

All year hunting....surely a stupid idea!

How about putting a bounty on yotes for a few yrs?

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Very good points.

[horst]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

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Though he hunts, he said he's never applied for extra deer permits under an existing Department of Environmental Conservation program that requires farmers to show local DEC agents crop damage caused by deer before they can get special permits for the regular hunting season.

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Theres part of the problem, sounds like you already have a nuisance deer program.Be interesting to see how many of these farms use the program you already have and how many dont even apply for the permits.

The DNR here in Iowas also got a new program, you can go online and register as a hunter for different areas of the state.Farmers with deer problems can also go online, call people from the list and have them come out and shoot does off their property.Only drawback to it is you gotta use your own tags, the advantage is you can gain access to more properties, if the landowner and you get along theres a chance youll have thier property to hunt for years to come.If you and the landowner dont get along to well, nobodies out anything.

Theres lots of options like these your state could be looking at where hunters are used to manage the deer on these places instead of farmers being allowed a continous open season on them.Personally I think your DNRs really screwing hunters over by even looking at that option.If farmers arent willing to let people into their farms to legally hunt deer they shouldnt be given the freedom to shoot deer on sight year round.

[NYBUCK]

Re: Year Round Deer Hunting in NY ?

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Theres lots of options like these your state could be looking at where hunters are used to manage the deer on these places instead of farmers being allowed a continous open season on them.Personally I think your DNRs really screwing hunters over by even looking at that option.If farmers arent willing to let people into their farms to legally hunt deer they shouldnt be given the freedom to shoot deer on sight year round.

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AMEN