The Commission Conundrum

[KingOfTagSoup]

The recent Hunt Talk Radio series with Andrew McKean offered many eye opening insights as to the challenges we as hunters are going to be up against in the coming years. After listening I realized that I didn't even know how the Wildlife commission in my home state (the quasi-communist kingdom of NY ) was set up or who the commissioners were. So I did some research and talked to a contact from the Department of Environmental Conservation and learned, to my surprise, we in NY don't actually have a wildlife commission in the sense that many other states do. What we do have is a Conservation Fund Advisory Board, which basically serves as an oversight for how DEC uses funds. While similar in structure to other state commissions, most of the management decision making power lies with the department biologists. On top of that, the representatives on the board are required by statute to hold a NYS hunting, fishing, or trapping license for at least three years in order to be considered for appointment. All in all, not what I would have expected o learn about NY. @Big Fin it might be worth reaching out to someone from NYSDEC for an interview, they might actually be on to something.

 

[get-n-birdy]

Very interesting!

 

[Dougfirtree]

I recently did the same thing, after listening to the podcast series (which I very much enjoyed). I was also interested to learn about our surprisingly hunter-friendly system. On the state's website for the NYS CFAB, hunting is even built into the stated purpose for the board; #5: "Encourage public participation in fishing, hunting and trapping and promote conservation and management of New York's natural resources."

Link: https://dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/hunting/nys-conservation-fund-advisory-board

Pretty cool!