Below, I list some Muckrace areas affected by this plan.
Meanwhile, although the decision was made at the state level, I’m not sure
that “this isn’t a local issue” applies. The whole early deer hunt program is
regional at most, while DEC instead decided to have a bow season in some places
within or alongside the areas designated for the early special gun season on
deer.
On the DEC hunting info website it appears that out of the 92 DEC Wildlife
Management Units across NYS only 7 (according to a chart) or 9 (according to a
map and its key) have the special early gun season on deer. That’s far from
statewide. Most of these WMUs are in the Lake Ontario Plains, but carved out of
the middle of that group is an area for bow-hunting instead of gunning during
that period: WMU 8C, which includes the Towns of Greece (Braddock Bay Area) and
Irondequoit, as well as Rochester, and parts of the Towns of Penfield,
Brighton, and Pittsford will only have bow-hunting then. Downstate, two WMUs
covering most of Rockland and Orange counties will have the special early gun
season on deer, while 2 other WMUs covering Westchester and Suffolk Counties
will have an early bow season instead. Clearly DEC is able to take local
concerns and situations into account and have the less-dangerous-to-people bow
season instead of an early gun season in local parts of the two larger areas
where they want to kill deer at this time.
One of the ambiguous areas missing from DEC’s chart but marked on their
map is WMU 9A, at the western end of the part of NYS with the new special early
gun season for deer. It was either added to the map or subtracted from the
chart, or simply screwed up, but it may also reflect local treatment of some
sort.
The other ambiguous area missing from the chart but marked on the map is
WMU 8J, on the southeast corner of the new special early gun season for deer.
Again, was WMU 8J almost subtracted locally, or was it almost added locally, or
does this reflect some other bureaucratic problem? WMU 8J includes the northern
two thirds of Seneca County, the eastern third of Ontario County, and the
northeastern third of Yates County, plus southern parts of 6 towns in Wayne
County. Of particular relevance to the Muckrace, WMU 8J includes:
* the entire Town of Tyre. This is where most of Montezuma NWR is. It includes
Knox-Marsellus & Puddler, and the mucklands along & south of NYS-31 as well as
the southwest corner of the Muckrace birding area to Magee north of NYS-318 and
east of NYS-414.
* the south half of Town of Galen and the southwest corner of Town of Savannah.
This includes the private areas north of Armitage Road.
The northeast corner of the new special early gun season for deer is WMU
8F. It includes all of Wayne County (except the southern bits in WMU 8J) plus
the eastern 2 1/2 towns in Monroe County and parts of 6 towns in northwestern
Cayuga County. The parts of WMU 8F in the Muckrace include:
* the Town of Montezuma north of NYS-31. This includes DEC’s Helmer Marsh and
the larger adjacent area owned by a hunt club. I assume gun hunting will be
allowed in both.
* the Town of Mentz north of NYS-31 & west of NYS-38, i.e. north and west of
Port Byron. This includes the area around Maiden Lane Rd and the area around
Howland Island Road to the iron bridge.
* the Town of Conquest west of NYS-38. This includes Howland Island, managed by
DEC and explicitly open to gun hunting. It also includes areas to the north
around Spring Lake, Duck Lake, and Mud Pond.
* the Town of Victory west of NYS-38 will allow gun hunting, while the area
south of NYS-370 is within the Muckrace.
* the entire Town of Butler is within the gun hunting area, while most of
Butler is part of the Muckrace (Same with a southern sliver of Town of
Wolcott). I’m not sure where the DEC lands are, but I assume they will allow
gun hunting, and of course it will be legal on private lands.
* the entire Town of Rose is within the gun hunting area, although only the
portion east of NYS-414 and south of Salter Rd is in the Muckrace, with North
Rose being the northwest corner.
* the north part of the Town of Galen and the 3/4 of the Town of Savannah which
are not in WMU 8J are definitely in the gun-hunting zone because they are in
WMU 8F. There are lots of traditional Muckrace birding areas here, including
some public DEC lands such as Railroad Rd, Morgan Rd to Carncross Rd, and
Martens Tract, where I have to assume gun-hunting will be allowed, some areas
owned by other organizations such as The Nature Conservancy (between part of
Carncross & part of Martens) and the Montezuma Audubon Center, where along with
all private lands gun-hunting would be legal unless the landowner prohibits or
the distance to roads or houses is too close. Even land which is posted “no
hunting” to the public may have hunters on it who have permission.
That’s my understanding.
