APRIL 28, 2008

COUNTY LEGISLATORS KOZUB, WROBLEWSKI SPONSOR RESOLUTION OPPOSING STATE INCREASE IN HUNTING AGE

Erie County Legislators Daniel M. Kozub (D-Lackawanna, Hamburg, Buffalo) and Timothy M. Wroblewski (D-West Seneca, South Cheektowaga) sponsored a resolution asking the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to reject increasing the minimum age for hunting, which the County Legislature approved at its April 23 session.

The resolution calls for the County Legislature to oppose a State Senate bill that would increase the age at which a person is allowed to hunt ion the state to 18 years from 16. The law would also require hunting license holders from age 18-20 to be accompanied by a parent or other person over age 20 when hunting "big game" such as deer.

Another feature of the State Senate bill is that the age for a junior archery license would increase to 16-18 years from 14-16, and that a hunting license holder between age 14-16 shall not hunt wildlife with a gun or longbow unless he or she is accompanied by his or her parent or legal guardian or relative older than age 23. There is no matching bill proposed in the State Assembly.

"This State Senate legislation would reverse last year's law that lowered youth hunting restrictions, which was based on the Families Afield Initiative," Legislator Kozub, a member of the Region 9 Fish and Wildlife Management Board and Chair of the Legislature's Energy and Environment Committee, said. "The initiative is a national effort to lower then-existing barriers and restrictions that served top prevent newcomers from experiencing hunting."

"I believe that if this bill is approved and signed into law, it would lead to fewer hunters in the field, thereby exacerbating the dual problems of deer overpopulation/motor vehicle collision incidents, trends that compromise public safety; would harm sportsmen traditions and would result in a loss of state license revenues," Legislator Wroblewski, an avid outdoorsman and hunting safety training supporter, said. "It would also diminish the positive economic impact sportsmen provide to Erie County."

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