With the regular deer season opening this Saturday, it will mark the annual day that sees the highest number of hunters afield in the state. However, the amount will probably be less than it was five or ten years ago, when the openers fell on a Monday. Although the Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2005 decision to change the opener to a Saturday was based on the premise it would offer more hunters the opportunity to hunt, its impact has not been as dramatic as hoped for.
There’s no arguing that deer are the state’s primary drawing card for attracting hunters and selling hunting licenses, but several other factors have come into play that are at the root of the steadily decreasing number of hunters. After all, we have plenty of deer, as well as wild turkeys, the latter being another attractor for enticing hunters to keep buying licenses. But when the overall picture of hunting in New York is scrutinized, those two game species alone are proving to be insufficient to keep the state’s hunter numbers from declining.
The move to a Saturday opener was based on the theory that not only would working adults not have to take a day off from their jobs, but also that students age 16 and over who hunted would be out of school. I think what this theory failed to consider was that deer hunters in the state largely represent the last legion of avid hunters, regardless of their ages. As such, most were already more than willing to take vacation or time off to hunt. So the change from a Monday to a Saturday actually impacted a smaller percentage than anticipated.
There’s also the factor of shrinking lands on which to hunt. As access to private lands has decreased, the hunting pressure and hunter densities on public lands have increased. A Saturday opener has only magnified these situations and may be actually accelerating them since most landowners are also free on Saturdays and available to observe what occurs, not only on their land but also those lands surrounding them. If trespassing occurs, the chances of the land involved becoming off-limits to all hunting increases.
Another problem some hunters have voiced is the Saturday opener means the traditional weekend they once used to prepare - sight in firearms, prepare gear, etc .-has been removed. Those two days also allowed hunters who traveled to their hunting areas or camps to do so before the opener. Now many must still use vacation days on Thursday or Friday to get there. Retailers of hunting gear have also complained that the new opening day has cost them sales since hunters had all weekend to shop before the Monday opener.
Opening day has a special significance unique to deer hunting. A study by Cornell University estimated that, for the 10-year span studied, 5.4 bucks were taken and 6.0 Deer Management Permits (DMPs) were filled for each 1,000 hunter hours on opening day. However, only 1.1 bucks were taken and 2.8 DMPs were filled for each 1,000 hunter hours during the rest of the regular season. Many hunters feel that if they fail to get a deer opening day, their chances are greatly reduced the rest of the season. This notion is reflected in the reduced hours they spent hunting the rest of the season. The same Cornell survey showed that the average deer hunter spent six hours actively hunting on opening day, but only a total of 43 hours the rest of the season. That figures out to less than one hour per day.
Some time ago Governor Spitzer and DEC Commissioner Grannis announced that New York State was going to do more to promote its hunting and fishing, since license sales for both have declined in recent years, despite the state’s nearly one million deer and excellent fishing. So far, we haven’t seen much action to accompany the words. It will take more than rhetoric to cause a turnaround in declining numbers of hunters and anglers, especially the former.
