In last Friday's Democrat, we ran an article about deer feeding in Sullivan County. Despite being legal in our county for approximately eight years follow- ing a ruling by now retired Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda, new NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations that went into effect on December 24 have once again prohibited it in our back- yard.

It seems like the two sides -- the DEC and local sports- men/conservationists -- are far apart.

?DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said prohibiting feeding of deer is the best management approach to reduce risks associated with communicable wildlife diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), minimize conflicts with deer, and protect wildlife habitat. Seggos also believes feeding deer and moose can artificially increase populations and change behavior, causing harm to people, wildlife, and the environment.

Locals disagree.

Jack Danchak, President of the Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc., believes the regulation, “....is ridiculous and their deer feeding policy is antiquated. It may have worked many years ago, but the deer habitat environment has changed and the negatives the DEC claim that may occur from domestic deer feeding, has never occurred during the 40 some years that we have been feeding deer here in Sullivan County, NY.”

Danchak continued by saying that the DEC is using CWD as an excuse to stop people from feeding deer. While there have been cases of CWD further upstate, there has been no known cases here in Sullivan County.

Our opinion is that county residents should be allowed to feed deer in the winter months while food is in short supply.

We are almost positive that the average person's ability to cut browse and cultivate food plots - both legal ways of feeding deer - is well beyond the average peron's ability. By allowing feeding of ‘store bought' products we are confident more deer would get fed.

People have different motivations for feeding deer. For some, it's about maintaining a healthy deer population to preserve the hunting tradition. In other cases, non-hunters have started feeding deer simply because they see an animal in need during the harsh winter months.

We believe the DEC does a terrific job. The hard work of their staff, forest rangers and environmental conservation officers are a big reason for our region being as beautiful and clean as it is. They also protect the integrity of our privilege to hunt and fish.

A healthy deer herd is important not only to both our resident and visiting sportsmen but also the hundreds of Sullivan County businesses who see more business during the fall and winter because of hunting season.

One of the main reasons the DEC may have enacted this law could be the use of food as “bait,” which is illegal to hunt over in New York State. By outlawing feeding altogether the DEC will be better able to enforce its laws about hunting over bait and no one can say they put the food out before the season started.

We support the ‘no bait' law.

If the DEC has legit concerns about deer feeding and CWD, they should be taken seriously. So should the opinions of our residents.

“We need a viable solution to that particular problem,” LaBuda said. “To ban all feeding, in my opinion, is not the proper solution. I think that concerned sportsmen and conservationists can help the DEC formulate an effective deer feeding regulation.”

In the meantime, we commend Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and New York State Senator Jen Metzger for introducing legislation in their respective chambers that would allow people to feed deer in Sullivan County during the winter months.