Why is small game in NY so scarce?
Now that it appears some decent autumn weather has arrived, hunters will be stepping into the woods and fields in search of deer, turkey, grouse, pheasant and rabbit. The question many are asking is, “Why is small game so scarce in our state?” Didn’t we just get hit with a sizeable license hike?
Of the $749 million in excise tax revenues generated by sportsmen and women to state and territorial fish and wildlife agencies through the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration and Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Programs, New York probably will get a pittance of that. Why? New York just doesn’t have that many qualifying programs
Okay, now let’s compare what a small game hunter can reasonably expect in Pennsylvania. It offers all that New York offers plus thousands of acres of public game management land.
Habitat in the western is in the process of being developed that will support a wild population of pheasant. The state plans to bring in and release true wild birds from South Dakota in the habitat, the birds will be monitored for survival and nesting success. This shows the difference between a mindset of managing for environmental quality and natural resources. The former sounds noble enough…until the money runs out. At least with conservation there are other sources of funds, including license fees. That’s if you offer the users something of value for their money. I fear that after 30 years of ignoring wildlife and its habitat, and apparently its license-buying sportsmen who are spending less time and money pursuing what is now a pittance of birds to hunt.
I know how disheartening it can be for a hunter and his bird dog to spend hours traipsing the woods or fields without moving or flushing any birds.
The DEC offered a grouse hunter’s notebook a few years ago. In it the hunter entered data at the end of each hunt (hours hunted, birds flushed, birds harvested). I recall seeing the final crunched figures and and they reflected just how badly NY’s upland hunting had gotten.
Will our upland hunting ever come back? Probably not, on what the state is willing to invest in it.
Of the $749 million in excise tax revenues generated by sportsmen and women to state and territorial fish and wildlife agencies through the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration and Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Programs, New York probably will get a pittance of that. Why? New York just doesn’t have that many qualifying programs
Okay, now let’s compare what a small game hunter can reasonably expect in Pennsylvania. It offers all that New York offers plus thousands of acres of public game management land.
Habitat in the western is in the process of being developed that will support a wild population of pheasant. The state plans to bring in and release true wild birds from South Dakota in the habitat, the birds will be monitored for survival and nesting success. This shows the difference between a mindset of managing for environmental quality and natural resources. The former sounds noble enough…until the money runs out. At least with conservation there are other sources of funds, including license fees. That’s if you offer the users something of value for their money. I fear that after 30 years of ignoring wildlife and its habitat, and apparently its license-buying sportsmen who are spending less time and money pursuing what is now a pittance of birds to hunt.
I know how disheartening it can be for a hunter and his bird dog to spend hours traipsing the woods or fields without moving or flushing any birds.
The DEC offered a grouse hunter’s notebook a few years ago. In it the hunter entered data at the end of each hunt (hours hunted, birds flushed, birds harvested). I recall seeing the final crunched figures and and they reflected just how badly NY’s upland hunting had gotten.
Will our upland hunting ever come back? Probably not, on what the state is willing to invest in it.
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