“DEC’s committed efforts to create new and exciting opportunities for young and seasoned hunters alike continue to enhance New York’s world-class hunting opportunities,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said. “Our pilot program for youth hunters, early antlerless season, new Holiday Hunt, and longer daily hunting hours all enhanced opportunities for New York’s hunters to safely and […]
“DEC’s committed efforts to create new and exciting opportunities for young and seasoned hunters alike continue to enhance New York’s world-class hunting opportunities,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said. “Our pilot program for youth hunters, early antlerless season, new Holiday Hunt, and longer daily hunting hours all enhanced opportunities for New York’s hunters to safely and successfully advance the state’s conservation-management efforts and we look forward to continuing these important efforts to grow the next generation of ethical hunters.”
Harvest breakdown
The 2021 estimated deer take included 110,839 antlered bucks and 100,430 antlerless deer, the DEC said. Statewide, this represents a five percent decrease in antlered buck harvest and a 25-percent decrease in antlerless harvest from the last season.
In part, the decline in antlerless harvest was due to reduced allocation of deer-management permits and a natural correction from 2020 when antlerless harvests increased by 30 percent from 2019.
In addition, hunting success appears to have declined in portions of the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and near the eastern shore of Lake Ontario most heavily impacted by epizootic hemorrhagic disease (or EHD) in 2021.
Hunters still took advantage of several new opportunities afforded to them last year, the DEC noted.
First, the department implemented a mid-September antlerless-only season in certain wildlife-management units where additional antlerless harvest was needed. This change, formally adopted just days before the season opened, resulted in hunters taking nearly 2,000 deer, the DEC said.
Also in 2021, state lawmakers established a pilot program allowing young hunters (aged 12-13) to hunt deer with a firearm in counties that passed a local law to participate. In all, 52 counties opted in, resulting in a 47-percent increase (17,346) in young hunters licensed to hunt during the special “Youth Deer Hunt” and a 36 percent jump in harvests. A report of deer hunting by 12-year-old and 13-year-old hunters is available on DEC’s website.
Additionally, anecdotal reports from many southern zone hunters who participated in the inaugural “Holiday Deer Hunt” were that participants enjoyed this new opportunity and found success in filling their tags for the season. The Holiday Hunt was a second portion of the late bow and muzzleloader season from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 designed to give hunters opportunity when students are on school break and families are gathered for the holidays. Late-season harvest increased about 10 percent with the additional days, and young hunters reported taking more deer during the “Holiday Deer Hunt” than during the traditional portion of the late bow and muzzleloader season.
DEC is planning additional outreach to landowners who own snowmobile trails in areas open to the “Holiday Hunt” to understand their perspectives and decisions related to recreational use of their lands during this period.