Steve Piatt: Unpacking the New York DEC’s deer dilemma

Colonel Nathan Jessup – played by Jack Nicholson in the movie “A Few Good Men” – had it right when he defiantly stated on the witness stand, “You want us on that wall! You need us on that wall!”

He just didn’t know he was talking about deer hunters in New York State.

It’s true. Hunting remains, for the managers of the state’s deer herd, the chief tool in keeping whitetails in check, particularly in areas where their numbers continue to spiral out of control.

And trust me, those areas exist in New York State. A few years ago I was invited to hunt in the Town of Mendon, outside Rochester. I managed to take a small buck there, but what I remember most was the white-knuckle drive to and from my hunting spot as I ran a slalom through whitetails that roamed through both residential areas and undeveloped land.

Much of that land was posted against hunting, which is just one of the factors – but a huge factor – DEC wildlife biologists have to deal with when trying bring whitetail numbers in line with available habitat. The pockets of off-limits land creates mini sanctuaries that allow deer, as they respond to hunting pressure, to simply ride out the season in areas where they can’t be hunted.

It’s why I’m generally sympathetic to DEC’s deer managers as they attempt to manage an animal that, in many cases, is inaccessible to their efforts.

And hunters don’t always help.

Sure, there are some legitimate reasons for passing on antlerless deer, and I’ve exercised that option many times.

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In the early archery season, when patterning a buck on a food source, most hunters are looking first to tag a buck. As rut activity increases, the sighting of a mature doe leads to thoughts that a buck may be in the area or even following close behind. And many of us simply have a buck-first mentality every season.

Too, many times I’ve let whitetails walk because I was unable to be absolutely sure the antlerless deer wasn’t a button buck. I’ve been wrong before, and these days I err on the side of caution.

But there’s more. In the warm days of the archery season, many hunters simply don’t want to deal with a doe, lacking the facilities to keep it cool and having no venison processor in their area. We’re also, generally, an older hunting fraternity these days and prefer to limit our huffing and puffing to dragging a buck from the field.

In some cases, hunters on leased land simply don’t remove nearly as many does as needed, at least from a sound management standpoint. Some refuse, whether commendable or ridiculous, to take an adult doe if there are fawns present. And there is always the hunter who, in his best show of hunting manhood, proudly states, “I don’t shoot does.”

There’s certainly nothing wrong with the eat-what-you-kill philosophy, and that, too, plays into DEC’s current deer predicament. There are options in making sure a deer gets into the hands of those in need, notably through the state’s Venison Donation Coalition.

That said, there are some serious pockets in the state where there is no participating processor in the program based on a recent check of the coalition’s website.

It remains to be seen whether DEC’s latest regulation effort – expanding “no-quota” Deer Management Permits to additional units; the nine-day firearms mid-September antlerless season in additional units; and creating an “earn-a-second-buck-tag” requirement – is a last-ditch attempt to trim the herd in areas where needed.

Ultimately, hunters will decide that.

DEC can do what it can from a regulatory standpoint, but it’s become abundantly clear at this point that no allocation of Deer Management Permits is going to change the philosophies now ingrained with an aging population of deer hunters.

It’s likely hunters will continue to use the same excuses for not taking a doe. Too warm. A buck first. Too long of a drag. Might be a button buck. Doe had fawns with it. I don’t shoot does.

What also won’t change is that DEC wants us on “that wall” and needs us on “that wall.”

Steve Piatt can be reached via email at stevepiatt04@gmail.com.