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Cornell Public Land Opportunities

Hi Guys, I've wanted to write this topic for a while. If anyone is looking for great public land opportunities please look into the Cornell University Botanical Gardens deer management program. They have designated campus lands around Ithaca as permitted hunting land for the public. You need to apply through the website below, take a test, pass a background check and then they'll email you the permit. The sites are regulated by numbers of hunters per day and there is a reservation site, which I think is a good thing, it's never crowded. Almost all the properties fall within the DMFA zone, you can also sign up for and that grants you two doe permits every day of the season. I wanted to get this program out there and encourage you all to take advantage of it because they had to cut down on the number of properties due to low hunter contributions. It is all free and they only ask for voluntary donations (I wish Cornell would just pay the bill but oh well at least they let us hunt their land!). The deer population in Tompkins County is VERY STRONG. There are plenty of big bucks too. Some of the properties are BOW HUNTING ONLY as well. I can help point you guys in the right direction too once you pick up the permit! Hope some of you will take advantage of the program! http://www.cornellbotanicgardens.org/our-gardens/natural-areas/stewardship/deer

Excellent program and nice of you to spread awareness. This is certainly far, far better than the Ithaca deer sterilization program that cost a small fortune and was highly ineffective.

So we talked about that program in one of my classes. One of the researchers spoke about it. Maybe you all know this story already, but its a good one if not. The surgery performed on captured does made it so they could not get pregnant. However, they left parts of the reproductive tract that allowed hormones to be secreted. That caused them to go into heat for prolonged periods of time and mating with a buck did nothing to stop it. It was a never-ending Rut. The population exploded in that area because bucks were coming from miles away to these does in heat. They were dying from exhaustion chasing does for so long without being able to breed them. It ruined that program.

Very interesting info Drake. Never knew that. Thanks for sharing.

Talked to someone who hunts the Cornell property, and he told me that even though the fixed does were tagged, they didn't restrict shooting them. Why spend the time and effort to capture and do surgery only to allow them to be taken out??????? Must be a state sponsored project.

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