New York DEC commissioner discusses crossbows, future projects with outdoor writers group

Kinderhook, N.Y. — The New York State Outdoor Writers Association recently held its annual conference in Greene and Columbia counties, where one of the highlights was a chance to sit down for a discussion with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Amanda Lefton.

Lefton joined the group at the Glencadia Rod & Gun Club, in Kinderhook. Also addressing the outdoor scribes was Steve Hurst, DEC’s Chief of the Bureau of Fisheries, along with Big Game Unit Leader Brendan Quirion.

“Between the work of Steve and Brendan and the rest of the team that we have, we are doing really exciting and incredible things on behalf of many of you and our partners across the community in order to really increase opportunities for fishing, for hunting, and continue to expand our reach,” Lefton said while greeting the group.

Lefton, who was appointed as commissioner early in 2025, said that although she’s new to the job, she came into it very familiar with DEC and its operations. She also stressed her interest in matters related to hunting and fishing. Most recently, she attended the National Archery in Schools state competition held in Syracuse in March.

“A bunch of these young kids shoot archery, and they are so talented and so impressive,” she said. “I will admit, I had never shot a bow before that day, but I was really proud that on the second try, I hit the target.

“And I tried to give the message of, ‘don’t be afraid to try new things,’” she continued “Because just getting over the barrier of trying something new, such as archery, and then having that thrill of pulling that bow back was just really, really thrilling, and seeing those kids thrive.”

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Lefton said that she’s fished for steelhead on the Salmon River and will soon be in a boat on the Hudson River as the agency performs sturgeon work. But her favorite activity thus far during her short time as commissioner was attending last year’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman workshop.

“Attending BOW was probably my favorite thing that I’ve done so far as commissioner, and I’ve done a lot of really fun things,” she said. “But I think that was by far my favorite thing.”

On a more serious note, Lefton, who has a strong environmental background, touched on several projects with which DEC is involved.

“I’ll say from the billions of dollars that we’ve invested through programs administered by our Division of Water that provide grants to partners like Ducks Unlimited to restore Tonawanda wetlands, and, upgrade infrastructure for tap water quality, to our Office of Climate Change grants; to municipalities to perform natural resource inventories; and the environmental justice grants. Or, the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act for aquatic connectivity and open space protection,” she said. “We’re doing so much across every single program and agency. We’re doing so many things that really contribute to nature-based solutions, to enhancing biodiversity and creating critical habitat protection. And I’ll say we’re incredibly proud of the really hands-on approach we have to deliver improved air quality, cleaner transportation, increased energy efficiency.”

She also touched on hunting and fishing topics, including recent youth turkey hunts, and let the hook-and-bullet writers know she supports sporting interests.

“I’m so committed to what we were doing collectively in order to build the future conservationists, to really recruit and retain more hunters, more anglers, because we know that really the original stewards of our environment is the conservation community,” she said. “And the conservation community has been such exceptional partners in ensuring that we are well managing our environment. And we need to continue to grow, really, the base of support that we have among young people, people of color, just more folks getting them into the fold.”

Lefton said that she supported passage of the crossbow bill last year, which was something she had gotten behind during her previous employment with the Nature Conservancy.

“I’ve been working on that crossbow bill for 10 years, and I tried so hard when I was at the Nature Conservancy to get that crossbow bill passed. It’s such an important tool for hunters to increase accessibility to ensure that we’re really tackling our deer herd in the state and provide more opportunities for hunters,” Lefton said. “I can’t even tell you just how thrilled I was by the victory that we had, and I was proud to be personally involved in helping to push that over the finish line.”

Lefton said that going forward she wanted to see the agency do as much as possible to get more people outdoors, touting the recent “These Lands Are For Everyone” campaign.

“That is really about how we ensure that we are providing an inclusive and accessible opportunity for people to go recreate, whether that’s hunting, fishing, hiking,” she said. “We’re making really important investments in so much of our facilities all across the state, whether it’s our fishing access sites, our trails, many of our nature centers, to ensure that we’re thinking about people of all abilities coming into our public spaces and ensure that we’re providing opportunities for them to recreate.”

A big priority, Lefton added, is for DEC, as an agency, to provide increased opportunities.

“We need to improve our inclusivity and accessibility of folks that are participating in these activities.”