Last night I attended the winter meeting for the WCBA. There was lots of talk about the parks, watershed, and private properties opening up to bowhunters in Westchester. More and more interest is beginning to show from towns and parks. The problem is that only 33% of the hunters participating in these programs are putting in the required time and effort. The trend with these programs going forward seems to be that they will start as "open to the public" and then pick the "best of the best" to continue in the program until they have their own team of hunters dedicated to the specific property.

There was also talk about starting a political fund to support certain candidates as dictated by the membership. A donation to Assemblyman Greg Ball was discussed but no decision was made by the time I left.

"The problem is that only 33% of the hunters participating in these programs are putting in the required time and effort."

We also heard from Mark Weckle on his genetic deer study that has been going on for several years now. He has collected over 550 samples of deer heart tissue and is now DNA testing the samples to try and scientifically prove that archery hunting is an effective way to control deer herds and allow forests to regenerate.

There were also a few nice racks in the 110" - 130" range that showed up for the big buck contest. They were great bucks, but if we could get the local deer population in check they would have probably been incredible bucks.

Doug and the rest of the WCBA team continue to do an excellent job of promoting bowhunting in the suburbs of Westchester and it's great we have an organization like the WCBA to work for us on a local level.