Reintroduction of Wildlife Good or Bad

[Nyboy]

How do you feel about reintroduction of wildlife back in to a area where they disappeared? Hunting clubs here are tiring to reintroduce the elk in the Catskills. No tax money will be used all money from private donations from hunters. Years ago Lynx where reintroduced to the Adirondocks. Big failure most ended up road kill. The Elk have no natural predators left in NY, should that make a difference ? Hope they don't like garden plants as much as the white tail deer do.

 

[journey11]

I remember we talked about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone not long ago.

The restoration of wild turkeys to our area was very successful. They are really a common sight now. I think for many species though, particularly predators and large herd animals like elk, their ecosystem is so unbalanced that the effort will probably not be successful or cause worse problems. Too many deer and they all starve, so I don't see how they could build up an elk population without increasing the bag limit on deer. And that's assuming people would want to take more deer. Perhaps if stamps/license were cheaper.

 

[ninnymary]

Journey, how much are licenses in your neck of the woods?

Mary

 

[journey11]

Journey, how much are licenses in your neck of the woods?

It's $35 for a resident sportsman hunting and fishing license. Add another $10 for a trout fishing stamp. Then there are extra stamps you can buy to increase the number of deer you can take (determined by what type of firearm season and by buck/antlerless...and they have to be taken in a certain order, which gets to be a little confusing), those range from $16-$21 each. My DH paid over a $100 for his license last year because he planned to do a lot of hunting, but only ended up taking 2 deer for the season. (And I think he only got to go fishing once! ) So that venison doesn't end up being free meat really.

I am glad to be able to purchase them online now. That's been really handy.

 

[ducks4you]

You'll have problems with land owners. We drive around now and find these pockets of about 5-12 homes on what used to be a farm, and no livestock. They won't like elk tearing up their lawns.
Also, not enough food. Right now hunting keeps the local deer populations low enough to survive the winter. Deer compete for food with each other. Single deer have been kicked out of the herd. Coyotes and Coywolves compete for food, too.
Recently small herds of Przewalski's horse were reintroduced to Mongolia, where most of them are extinct. These animals were bred and raised in zoos. Of the two herds left out to winter, one almost died off, and the other, let out on a preserve with plenty of fodder, mostly survived. ALL of this should be carefully studied before it's done, and maybe should be raised on ranches. We have the owner of about 50 acres, some 10 minutes south of us, who bought a horse property, then put in super strong fencing and are raising Buffalo! They do fine, BUT it's on what is a closed down garbage dump (with hills) and they provide water, but the hills give a natural wind barrier. THEY TAKE CARE OF THEM, instead of expecting them to fare for themselves.

 

[Nyboy]

@journey11 how many pounds of meat from 2 deer did you end up with? If your hunting your own land do you still need to buy stamps?

 

[journey11]

@journey11 how many pounds of meat from 2 deer did you end up with? If your hunting your own land do you still need to buy stamps?

We bone out all of our meat and I spend some time removing a lot of the tendons and stuff, so I usually end up with maybe 40 lb. per average sized deer. I've never weighed it exactly, so that's just a ballpark guess.

Copied from WV DNR site:

Resident landowners or their resident children or their
resident parents or resident tenants of such land, may hunt
or trap on their own land without a license during open
seasons.

Between bow season, buck, antlerless and muzzleloader season, I think you can take up to 10 on your own land. My DH hunts mostly on my BIL's farm and my dad's farm, so he is required to have a license. His mom has 30 acres which he could hunt free on, but they don't get many deer on it since it is cut off from above the hollow by another neighbor hunting. He leaves the rest for his brother. If I wanted to, I could hunt on my dad's farm without a license. If I ever hope to make jerky again, I may have to!

 

[ninnymary]

Journey, is this law enforced even on private land?

Mary

 

[bobm]

The elk do have natural enemies ... coyotes will kill new born and very young elk calves. Now the coywolves a crossbred between a coyote and wolf , then add them crossbreeding with the domestic dog, and now you really have a big, inteligent , bloodthirsty pack predator , increasing in numbers in the Eastern states, and since they are larger and have pack preying habits of the wolf, so they are able to kill much larger prey. Introducing the wolves to areas where they were eliminated is pure folly . Allowing more hunters to hunt deer, elk, etc. and or to increase the bag limit is the best method to control numbers of game animals inspite of the views of some bleeding hearts. .

 

[journey11]

Journey, is this law enforced even on private land?

Mary

Technically it is, as much as people are honest. You still have to write up a tag and check in your game even if it was taken on landowner's privileges. There are people who poach--taking deer out of season or against the limits--even on their own land. They would be prosecuted if they did get caught. Neighbors making phone calls to the game warden would cause that to happen. I could easily get away with tagging one of DH's deer as my own on landowner's if he took one he wasn't supposed to, but I am honest and won't do that.