This Saturday's opening day of the three-week regular deer hunting season in the Southern Zone has an added hint of change to it ... for it's the first time ever in New York State that youth hunters aged 14 to 16 years old will be able to legally hunt deer (and black bear, beginning Nov. 22). How many actually participate remains to be seen, but if hunter safety courses' attendance around the zone are any indicator, the number may be fairly substantial, especially in the more rural areas such as ours.
As have been well documented and circulated - especially by the anti-hunting and anti-gun organizations – the number of youths taking up hunting has been in decline for the past decade or so. Several factors have been credited for the decline, much to the delight of anti groups, but the sad truth of the matter is that, as a whole, hunters and anglers have historically been the main stewards of our natural environment and the creatures that depend on it. It is also their money – via licenses, fees and special taxes – that fund most of the various state and federal management programs so critical to the welfare of the natural environment.
However, all that said, from a layman's viewpoint the real, usable benefits of youths hunting and fishing is more about education and healthy lifestyles. It's sad when you read the facts about the general health and physical state of far too many kids today. Time was, it was rare to see youths in their teens or young adults in their twenties with diabetes. Now it's become alarmingly all to commonplace. Why? Little or no exercise and poor diet habits. The results are predictable – they become over weight and in poor physical condition. Due to too many indoor lifestyles and interests, far too many don't have a clue about the goings on in the outdoors beyond their house, fast food hangouts or shopping malls. What little they do know often comes from watching TV or visiting YouTube on the Net. Precious few have probably ever seen a fox or coyote hunting mice and voles in a field, or a buck pawing at a breeding scrape or rubbing its antlers on a tree or sapling. Or had a tiny chickadee land so close they could've almost reached out and touched it.
Both hunting and fishing install life values that can be carried through adulthood. Hunting teaches patience and perseverance, as does fishing. They reaffirm that nothing in life usually comes easily; that we must work for what we obtain and amass. They also ingrain responsibility for one's actions, for the taking of a creature's life, be it game or fish, is nothing at all like the phony scenarios they may have experienced when playing those calloused video games that so many enjoy today. When game or fish is harvested, there is no "Play Again" or "Start Over" command. It's done, it's final, and you must live with it. There are no referees to penalize you if you cheat, screw up or are wasteful of the resources (although there are DEC ECOs to catch you). But in spite of that, the memory of cheating will haunt you to such an extent that you'll hopefully not do it ever again. None of us are totally self-reliant today. We obtain the majority of our needs to exist from third parties, be it our food, clothing and shelter. We never see the pig, fowl or cattle's demise that provides our meat at the store. But harvesting and processing a deer closes that often ignored mental link and highlights the knowledge that for us to survive, some things must be expendable. It is a basic law of nature that increasingly more of us find difficult to acknowledge or accept. Every living creature depends on other creatures for its existence. It is a food chain as old as Earth, and it's worked very well for eons.
Nature normally produces a surplus each year for that reason. Excess flora for the prey species, excess prey for the predators. Although we still have excesses of flora – thanks to our domestication of the land – we have become the primary predators ... not necessarily by choice, but by circumstances. With that comes the responsibility to properly manage the prey surpluses. Thus, we still need hunters who will do just that. And in recent years the prey species that has given us the most trouble is deer. Too many deer spell problems in the natural flora ecosystem that is critical to a wide variety of other wildlife species.
So, here stands the hunter - not the wolves and mountain lions that once kept excess deer herds in check with the ecosystem - and the role that he serves is no less important to the welfare and future of the natural world than was that of the four-legged predators that preceded him. If you've never thought about the decline in hunters, stop and consider what the alternative might be or the eventuality of there being no hunters in the years ahead. Deer contraception has proven to be a failure, paid sharpshooters have proven far too expensive and distasteful, and the general public has balked against paying higher taxes to support either alternative.
Like so many necessary roles in society, that being done by hunters should not be underestimated nor ignored by biased attitudes. And the torch subsequently needs to be passed to each new generation. Hopefully we'll see more of that occurring.

Bears not legal until Nov. 22 in WMU 7M
Hunters should be aware that black bears may not be taken in WMU 7M, which includes Chenango County, until Nov. 22, a week after the regular deer season opens. The season limit is one bear per hunter.

Donate your deer skin for DEC's Kids Camp
The Chenango County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs is again asking successful hunters to donate their deer skins to help raise funds for their "Send Kids to DEC Camp' program. Skins may be dropped off at bins located at: Mayhood's Sporting Goods (Norwich), Chenango Taxidermy (Preston), NAPA Auto Parts or Norm's Barber Shop (Sherburne), or the Dollar Store (Oxford).