A pair of bills legislating antler restrictions in wildlife management units (WMUs) 3C, 3H, 3J, 3K and part of 3A were passed very late in the recent legislative session. They went to the governor on 5 August and he must decide whether to sign them or veto them very soon.
The bills are Assembly A394 and Senate S5061 and you can look at them at:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/Enter the bill number and after you open the bill check the memo and text blocks to expand the document.
Whether you support, oppose or have no opinion on antler restrictions you might want to weigh in and let the Governor know how you feel at:
http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.phpA lot of folks have pretty strong opinions one way or the other but the use of the legislative process to expand antler restrictions as opposed to the open process of establishing regulations would seem to be very bad idea. Fish and wildlife management practices are far better developed by professional wildlife biologists with the open and fair give and take of the normal regulatory process. Do you really want to see a precedent set for anti fishing, hunting and trapping legislators and special interest groups to be able to legislate fish and game management?
There are a number of related studies and the results of a number of related surveys on the DEC website at
http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/74971.html#ARPlease take a look and if you are interested enough to comment, do so as soon as possible. The time window for the Governor to act is closing fast.
The all volunteer Conservation Fund Advisory Board which has voting members from every area of the state and from the NYS Conservation Council and the Fish and Wildlife Management Board is unanimous in it's opposition to these bills. The text of the memorandum of opposition to them is included below since it was sent out just before the weekend and is not yet on the website. It reads kind of clunky since it started out as an Adobe PDF.
Thanks for reading this far.
Lance Robson
NYS Conservation Fund Advisory Board
NYS Fish and Wildlife Management Board
The memo is below:
STATE OF NEW YORK CONSERVATION FUND ADVISORY BOARD
625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4800
August 11, 2011
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
RE: Antler Restriction Legislation
Dear Governor Cuomo:
The Conservation Fund Advisory Board (CFAB), which oversees the expenditures of Conservation Fund revenues
for the care, management, protection and enlargement of the fish and game resources of the State and which
advises the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Governor on matters that may affect future
sporting license sales strongly opposes Assembly bill A394A and Senate bill S5601 regarding the imposition of
“antler restrictions” in selected Wildlife Management Units (WMUs). This proposed legislation circumvents the
normal regulatory process guided by the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA) and in effect seeks to
undermine the DEC’s management authority for the State’s fish and wildlife resources as per §11-0303 of the
Environmental Conservation Law. The regulatory process currently in place has worked successfully for many
years. It allows for the give-and-take of open public comment and for meaningful input from a wide variety of
individuals and interest groups, not just a single vocal political constituency group.
The change from the current open and fair regulatory process to one of using legislation to address the concerns
of special interests would, necessarily, harm the interests of the majority of the public who would be denied the
ability to openly and fairly debate a law and who would be denied the right to have meaningful input into the
development of fish and wildlife management practices. Additionally, sound fish and wildlife management
depends on the expertise of the agency statutorily charged with carrying out the mission of protecting and
preserving our natural resources. This legislation sets a very bad precedent in regard to sound management and
sound government.
It is the opinion of this board that if a desired outcome cannot survive the current fair and open regulatory
process it should not be imposed by means of legislation.
Sincerely,
Jason Kemper
Chairman, NYS Conservation Fund Advisory Board
Cc: Joe Martens, NYSDEC Commissioner
