Statewide meetings to focus on white-tailed deer
By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist
ALBANY — The state’s white-tailed deer herd will be the focus of a series of statewide public meetings to be conducted this month and next by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The meetings will review results of the 2001 hunting season and the state of the deer herd. They will also provide an update on potential changes and a forum for discussing additional ideas to improve deer management in New York State.
The 18 "State of the Deer Herd" meetings will introduce changes in hunting license and permit issuance procedures made possible by the conversion of the State’s sport license sales program from a paper-based system to a new computerized point-of-sale system.
This year’s meetings are a follow-up to the Future of Deer Hunting initiative conducted by DEC during the spring and summer of 2000. The program will solicit input from hunters and others regarding changes that could be made to deer hunting and deer management while also increasing the harvst of anterless deer, where needed, to control deer populations.
The meetings will run from 7-9 p.m. and are open to the public.
Region 5
Monday, May 20 — Beekmantown Central School, Route 22, 7 miles north of Plattsburgh.
Wednesday, May 22 — Indian Lake Central School, Hamilton County.
Wednesday, May 29 — Cornell Cooperative Extension, 50 West High Street, Ballston Spa, Saratoga County.
Region 6
Thursday, May 23 — State Office Building Auditorium, Watertown, Jefferson County.
Wednesday, May 29 — Herkimer County Community College, Room 228, Herkimer.
Wednesday, June 5 — Williams High School, State Street, Canton, St. Lawrence County.