“Hunter Profile (ing)”

 

Most hunters, fishermen/women, trappers and gun-owners who I personally know are laid back, patient, passive folks who love the outdoors and usually don’t like to make any noise - literally and figuratively. Most Bow Hunters definitely fall into these categories. And yes there are the rotten apples - the few who give all hunters a bad reputation. Some still refer to them as “slob-hunters.” Over the years I have had the pleasure of knowing and hunting with folks from many different professions and disciplines e.g., Engineers, Doctors, Public Servants, Police Officers, Ministers, Teachers, Real Estate Folks and others, both men and woman. There are always a few who I would consider poor public relations representatives of a particular discipline or group. When one appears in a negative story in the daily newspaper, it casts a shadow on all who may be in that particular group. Some of us, myself included, have had a bad experience with one of these un-professionals at one time or another. Some groups attempt to police their own, e.g., the Bar and Medical Associations and others. Outdoor folks in the State of Pennsylvania have SPORT, the acronym for “Sportsmen Policing Our Ranks Together.” New York State has a similar program called TIPP (Turn In Polluters and Poachers). To confidentially report Environmental Conservation Law violations 24 hours per day call 1-800- TIPP DEC.

Many in the previously mentioned disciplines are required by law to be licensed to practice. We all need to be licensed to drive motor vehicles and renew our licenses periodically without much fanfare. We send the DMV a check and they in turn send us our license to use one of the “most dangerous pieces of equipment” that we have in our society today. The license comes to us in the mail and without any mention of new laws or even an up-to-date regulations book. Hunters on the other hand have to go through hours of initial classroom study and testing in order to hunt with firearms, archery equipment, trapping etc. Each year, when you purchase your hunting licenses over the counter as I do, you may have to sign your name in 12 or 13 different places on forms/documents and pay approximately $55.00 or more if you are a diverse hunter/fisherman/woman. I personally pay $80.00 each year for special NYS licenses. We are possibly the only outdoor group who pays to use public and private lands for passive recreation. Some hunters may only hunt parts of the 3 week firearms season. A regulations guide book is made available every time you purchase your yearly licenses. There is talk that these fees may be increased. This at a time when license sales have fallen in recent years. Would retailers raise the price of merchandise when sales were falling? You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this.

A recent US Supreme Court Ruling in an Indianapolis case stated, “Police may not set up roadblocks and stop cars randomly in a search for drugs.” The practices of law officers there was illegal because they were specifically designed to catch criminals without good cause and amounted to an unreasonable search - mostly of honest law-abiding citizens. The court made this ruling in November of this year in a 6 to 3 decision. The Justices have also ruled previously that “sobriety checkpoints” are constitutional as public safety measures.

Now I don’t want to make the mistake of overlooking the good work that many good police officers do. I don’t want to upset my friends, neighbors and family members who work in law enforcement - allow me to explain a bit further. By now everyone has heard about the State of New Jersey and the profiling by NJ State Police, “people of color“. The governor and the president had to get involved and heads rolled. It seemed that if you fit a certain profile you would be pulled over and checked. Locally and recently, it was revealed that at least one officer in one OC PD pulled over a large majority of motorists who just happened be “young blonde women” - profiling or coincidence?

Many hunters have been stopped, questioned and searched during the hunting season in road blocks set-up on major highways and roads. Some have told me that they have even been checked 2 times in one day. I recently hunted at one of the NYSDEC operated hunting co-ops and saw a traffic log jam of police officers checking hunters. Is this really necessary? Can this action be considered profiling? Perhaps this valuable manpower would be better utilized if they were deployed into some of Orange County’s heavy crime areas. Or just maybe they can be better utilized, with equal force cracking down on major polluters of our environment.

To single out hunters, as some of us have seen, is simply another form of profiling a target group. As I wrote in the beginning - most hunters, fishermen/women, trappers and gun-owners who I know personally are laid back, patient, passive folks who love the outdoors and usually don’t like to make any noise - literally and figuratively - but that is changing.

Christmas Gifts - If you’re not sure what gift to buy that special outdoor person this year. Try looking in somebody’s Cabela’s Catalog for gift ideas. There are many great new products this year for outdoor folks. Outdoor clothing has come a long way since I first ventured into the outdoors. One new hi-tech item is a special mask that enables one to breath cold air in through a special heat exchanger that uses your own exhaled breath to warm-up the next incoming breath of air. They say that it eliminates up to 40% of body heat loss. It comes in different camo patterns and sells in some local sporting goods stores as well as Cabela’s.

Our Environment - I attended the EPA sponsored Hudson River PCB’s Reassessment Project in Poughkeepsie on 12/14/00. There was a great turnout with more than 400 people in attendance and 80 citizens signed-up to speak. It appeared that great majority of speakers were in favor of dredging the PCB’s from the Hudson’s “hot spots.” This project is also considered the Hudson River PCB’s Superfund Site. Estimates for the clean-up are $470 million. GE is against dredging the Hudson. They say that dredging will only make the situation worse and as expected some politicos are defending GE. At least one NYSDEC attorney who was working on the GE case jumped ship to work for GE. My opinion is that this can be a good situation for all concerned except GE. If the clean-up plan materializes the Hudson River and our environment will be cleaned of dangerous PCB’s and some of the $470 million will go into the economy of many river communities and businesses. All pollution abatement projects stimulate business and also creates jobs. Most politicos and business leaders just haven’t realized this yet - but when they do you will see a big change in the way our politicos “do business.”

Dr. Ward Stone, NYSDEC Head Pathologist in Delmar NY, conducted a study 21 years ago proving that PCB’s have migrated from the Hudson River and are pervasive in our environment. DR. Stone used the snapping turtle in his study to determine just how bad it was back then. An article from 1979 indicated the allowable threshold limit back then was 5 ppm in fish used for consumption. Some turtles from the river had levels between 7,000 and 8,000 ppm. Today the threshhold limit is 0.05 ppm according to the EPA. Things can really change over time. I have much more to say on Dr. Stone and his studies and reports - in future columns. It has taken more than 21 years for our governments to do something to correct this major health risk to humans and our environment. Anytime that I see big business make statements re the environment a red flag goes up - especially when politicos get involved.

 

By the time you read this column the post muzzle-loader season will have ended. But pheasant and other small game species seasons will continue for specified times. Check your hunting and trapping regulations guide for information on seasons in your region. The Orange County federation of Sportsmen Club’s stocks pheasants on the Stewart Hunting Co-op, in Sterling Forest and other areas of the county. This is a rough time of the year for both hunters and wildlife - predator and prey. Deer begin to restrict their movements in order to conserve energy and not burn-up valuable calories. Dogs can be a problem at this time of the year. In packs, they can take a deer down and literally devour it alive like the wild dogs of Africa. Conservation laws in some states or regions allow peace officers to dispatch dogs that are chasing deer. In other states or regions the average citizen is empowered. Dogs also have their own predator - motor-vehicles. Please protect wildlife and at the same time your dog - keep them leashed or in a run.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!