2007 marked the second straight year of increased deer harvests across the Empire State.

During the 2007 season, hunters harvested approximately 220,000 deer. That's a 16 percent increase over the previous year, according to Pete Grannis, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner.

Last year, harvest numbers increased in every deer category that the DEC tracks, including bucks killed, antlerless deer killed and total harvests in the muzzleloading and bowhunting seasons.

Also, researchers detected no cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) during the season, despite having tested nearly 7,500 deer.

Overall, the 2007 season was very good for the state's hunters. The harvest included 104,451 bucks and 114,690 antlerless deer. The buck harvest grew 8 percent over 2006 (96,569) and 17 percent over 2005 (89,015), suggesting that deer populations in many portions of New York are continuing to increase.

TOP COUNTY HARVESTS
Steuben County returned to the top spot in 2007 with 12,796 deer taken, followed by Allegheny County with 10,798. In 2006, Cattaraugus County had the highest deer take, with 8,492 deer, but came in third last year with 9,934. Rounding out the top five were Chautauqua (8,765) and St. Lawrence counties (7,051).

WESTERN NEW YORK
Western New York includes regions 7, 8 and 9 (and their corresponding WMUs).

During the 2004 and 2005 seasons, deer hunters saw significant reductions in almost all counties and WMUs, but numbers rebounded in 2006 and improved again in 2007.

Hunters in this part of the state still took more deer than most other counties, and these WMUs boast some of the highest deer and buck densities in the state. Western New York produced 134,294 deer, or 61 percent of the statewide count (versus 113,852 in 2006, or 58 percent of the harvest).

Region 9 includes Allegany, Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Wyoming and Niagara counties. Cattaraugus and Allegany each produced roughly 10,000 deer, and were among the state's top three harvest counties in terms of total deer killed.

Region 9 wildlife managers usually recommend wildlife management units 9H, 9P and 9J, which traditionally have the highest harvests in the region. Units 9M and 9Y typically have the region's highest deer kill per square mile. In terms of total deer harvest, this region contains four of the top 10 counties in the state.

Public hunting areas in the region include the Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area in WMU 9P, which stretches across the border between Allegany and Livingston counties west of Dansville; the Keaney Swamp WMA in the town of Birdsall; and nearly 29,000 acres of state forestlands.

Region 8 stretches from Lake Ontario south through the Finger Lakes to the Pennsylvania border. It includes the counties of Livingston, Orleans, Monroe, Wayne, Genesee, Seneca, Schuyler Chemung, Yates, Ontario and Steuben.

Throughout Region 8, the kill added up to 54,013 deer, as compared to 46,356 in 2006. This region holds three of the state's top 10 counties (Steuben, Ontario, Livingston) in terms of total deer harvest.

This region holds some of the best deer hunting in the state! In fact, Yates County typically produces the highest deer kill per square mile, and Steuben County typically produces the highest total deer harvest.

You can't go wrong on public or private land. The best WMUs include 8G, H and N, all of which are among the best, year after year.

In the northern part of the county, WMU 8P is always a good bet, including the 998-acre Pigtail Hollow State Forest and 2,690-acre Urbana State Forest, both east of Stickney.

In the recent past, the DEC's Region 7 has had relatively mediocre seasons, but had four of the top 20 deer-producing counties in 2007 and 2006.

Last year's region-wide harvest of 33,745 was up from 31,877 in 2006. The recent improvement in these numbers points to an encouraging 2008 season.