Steuben County in first place for 2006 deer take
By KATHRYN ROSS THE WELLSVILLE DAILY REPORTER

Steuben County topped the region in deer take, while Allegany County once again topped the state buck density per square mile, held on to second place for buck take and held third place for the number of deer take.

Senior Wildlife Biologist for Region 9, Tim Spierto, of Allegany, said today that 10,229 deer were taken in Stueben County while 8,341 deer were taken in Allegany County. However while the deer density per square mile for Steuben County was up for this year, Allegany County topped the state list with a 4.2 buck density for square mile. Steuben county which was 3.,2 buck per square mile harvested in 2005 its number rose to 3.5 bucks harvested per square mile in 2006.

Why Allegany County has the greatest number of buck per square mile Spierto said, "is because our buck population is doing quite well."

Allegany County took the top density statistics, Spierto said, is because, "hunters were out early and it was warm during archery season. We saw that trend throughout Region Nine."

Why the region fell behind in the number of bucks taken throughout the state is for a couple of reasons Spierto said, "We were a little conservative with doe permits. We didn't issue as many doe permits as in the past. The weather also didn't cooperate there were just a few days of snow."

"When there isn't any snow the deer don't have to get up and go anywhere to feed, they just stay in their areas," he said.

The top five counties in New York for buck harvest density were: Allegany County, 4.2; Yates County, 3.9; Tompkins County, 3.6; and Wyoming County, 3.6 bucks per square mile and Orange County (3.6 bucks per square mile).

Orange county's addition to the top five, Spierto said resulted from, "some new areas were opened up this year. The big surprise is that Wyoming county got on the list. I don't know why, but were digging into it."

The DEC results calculated for the last Big Game Season show that during the 2006-07 deer hunting seasons, hunters harvested slightly more than 189,100 deer, including approximately 96,600 bucks and 92,500 antlerless deer. After three years of declining deer takes, results from this past season represent a slight increase from the 2005 deer harvest. The slight increase was expected following management actions in 2004 and 2005 intended to rebuild and stabilize the deer population in many areas of the state.

"New York hunters once again had a safe and successful deer season," said Acting Executive Deputy

Commissioner, Carl Johnson. "Our harvest results from this past season are right about where we projected, and we are encouraged to see modest growth in many Southern Zone units. We are also very pleased that despite testing almost 8,000 deer in 2006, no new cases of Chronic Wasting Disease have been detected."

The 2006 harvest of almost 96,600 bucks was an encouraging 8 percent increase over the 89,200 bucks taken in 2005, suggesting that deer populations in many portions of the state are growing slowly and recent management actions are working. The 2006 antlerless take remained stable from 2005, despite a nominal increase in Deer Management Permits (DMPs) for 2006. DMPs are issued for harvest of antlerless deer only, and their availability varies among WMUs depending on the status of the deer population in each WMU relative to objective levels.

"Our intent in much of the state was for conservative antlerless harvest this season to maintain moderate population growth in areas hit hard by severe winter conditions and high harvests several years ago," said Johnson. "While the 2006 harvest suggests deer populations are growing over much of the state, the Department acknowledges that increases may not be as fast or as large as many hunters would prefer. However, the number of WMUs with deer populations near desired levels is increasing, and with the conservative antlerless harvest this past year, we anticipate continued success in achieving objectives over the next few years."

Since 1990, DEC has used local Citizen Task Forces to establish deer population objectives for most WMUs. The task forces represent a broad range of public interests and consider concerns of many stakeholder groups including farmers, foresters, conservationists, landowners, hunters, and others. The desired deer population level of each WMU is expressed as a Buck Take Objective (BTO) and reflects the approximate buck take per square

mile that would be taken when the deer population is close to the desired level.

Deer populations vary considerably throughout New York, and according to the DEC currently about 25 percent of the WMUs have deer populations that are within 10 percent of desired levels. About 20 percent of the units have deer populations greater than desired, while the remaining 55 percent of the units have lower than desired deer populations.