Greg Clary
The Journal News

NORTH SALEM - The backbone of a Westchester County plan to reduce the number of deer in the region is the bow-and-arrow hunter, such as outdoorsmen Don Hopko and Alain Rossignol.

Animal advocates say recreational hunting, especially bowhunting, is an inhumane and inefficient way to cull the heavy deer population.

But these veteran hunters don't see it that way.

"In years past, you'd find carcasses in the woods where they would maybe kill them and just take the antlers," said Hopko, a 57-year-old Kent resident who has hunted for more than 40 years. "You don't find that anymore. The day of the slob, drunk hunter is gone. Especially with bowhunting. You'd have to be out of your mind to climb up a tree 20 feet drunk."

Local and regional bowhunter associations point out that they have provided about 60,000 pounds of venison for food pantries in the past 15 years.

Hopko and Rossignol, who have been hunting together for decades, said they were happy to have contributed to that effort.

They keep an eye on each other and the habitats they scour for signs of quarry that meets their standards.

"We let the little bucks grow up," Hopko said as he watched Rossignol hoist himself two stories high to a good vantage point. "We look for a big buck and shoot the does. We've been doing that for years. We shot 17 doe out here last year, a group of us."

That is a level of success that Westchester officials hope can be duplicated on county land to reduce the density of deer herds from more than 60 per square mile to the five to 10 per square mile that wildlife experts say is best for the herds.

As a result of a deer task force's recommendations, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano plans to test bowhunting in some county parks in the fall as a means to control record-level deer numbers.

"It should have been done a long time ago," said Rossignol, a 66-year-old Somers resident who has been hunting even longer than his partner. "That's what Pound Ridge did. These forests may never regenerate. It could take 20 years, and that's only if the deer population is held in check. Coyotes can't do enough on their own."

On a recent clear day, the pair worked the woods of privately held land, carrying their hunting licenses and landowner permission letters, as well as enough equipment to stay still in trees for three or four hours.

They didn't even get to draw their Conan-size bows on this particular trek, though they saw dozens of deer alongside homes on the drive in.

"We used to see 25 deer in a day," Rossignol said. "Now we see two or three. They're all on people's lawns because of the green grass. That's all they can feed on. There's nothing green here. They've eaten it all."

The deer resort to grass when they cannot find the food that gives them the most nutrition for the nibble. Hopko, Rossignol and the forestry experts on the task force say the dense deer herds are leaving local woods eaten down to the nub.

Laura Simon, a field director for the Humane Society of the United States, is the lone task force member who publicly disagreed with the final recommendation to allow more hunting on public lands.

She said bowhunting is especially difficult to support, citing studies that show that as many as three out of every five animals that are hit don't die quickly and can even get away without ever being tracked down.

"Bowhunting incurs a very high crippling rate," Simon said. "That's not an answer. It's very primitive and very inhumane. The public needs to look at this issue and weigh in because when we're talking about opening up parks or county land to hunting, the public really needs to know what that entails."

Even if the bowhunting experiment is a success, the potential for a long-lasting solution based on recreational hunters has its limits.

"The average deer hunter in New York state is 47 years old, and it's getting worse," Hopko said. "If people don't get on the bandwagon now, pretty soon we're going to be too old to do this."

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It looks like the new year is bringing a lot of positive press for bowhunters! There was also a great article in the New York Times yesterday on a traditional hunter's quest to take all 29 (P&Y now recognizes the Tule Elk) North American Game Species. He's in a race with Fred Eichler.