15,000+ signup for New Junior Big-Game License

Hunters harvested approximately 223,000 deer in the 2008 season, a 2 percent increase over the previous season, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today.

The annual deer harvest report also showed that more than 15,000 14- and 15-year-olds signed up for the new “Junior Big-Game License” and that researchers detected no cases of Chronic Wasting Disease.

Harvest numbers increased slightly in every category: bucks, antlerless deer, muzzleloading and bowhunting. However, the increases were smaller than the 5-10 percent increase DEC projected, largely due to weather.

“Rough weather during the first week of the Southern Zone regular season seems to have kept overall take below expectations,” Commissioner Grannis said, explaining that steady growth of the deer population in the Southern Zone fueled predictions of a larger harvest.