Meeting Minutes

7/14/2018

Greetings,

The second meeting of our quality deer management co-op went very well. It was held on July 14 and we met again at the Legion. The people at the Legion have been very good to us, and it will be available for future meetings.

Seventeen adults attended, and three children, representing well over 1,000 acres. Several other people had wished us well and plan to attend future meetings.

We had two good presentations. Mark talked at length about herd management, and Bob gave a presentation about food plots. We didn’t keep track about how many drinks Mark had to buy for people for successfully answering the questions that he asked along with his PowerPoint presentation, but it was quite a large number.

At the end of the meeting we had a show of hands and unanimously adopted goals and guidelines for our co-op. They are as follows:

Bucks harvested shall have more than 14 inches outside antler spread
No button bucks shall be harvested
Doe harvest is in alignment with the carrying capacity of the land, after careful study (this could change year-to-year, there is no guidance here yet for 2018)
Participants shall record harvest and observation records (process currently in development)
First time hunters and youth hunters are exempt from these guidelines
Accidents happen, and to further encourage community recruitment to our co-op, it should be noted that there are no QDM “police”

We then continued our discussion:

Once the harvest and observation record system is in place, Mark will distribute instructions. At the end of each year, Mark will compile reports:
- One general report for the co-op, compiling everyone’s data, and distributed to everyone.
- Individual reports for each landowner, which is private and not shared with anyone else.

All of these reports will contain valuable information such as Buck:Doe ratio, Fawn Recruitment, and Age Structure ratios.

This lead to another part of the discussion, which is deer management permits. DEC just released its projections, and deer management permits will be extremely hard to draw in 8p this year. If we have a co-op with at least 1000 acres and we gather enough data, DEC can and will issue deer management permits so that we can manage the deer herd and keep it in line with the habitat in our specific area. That is a huge bonus and an important reason to be an active coop member.
A third related issue is predator control. Everyone was totally in agreement with having dog hunters come in and thin out the coyotes that are on our properties. We will be talking with the dog owners and we will notify everyone via email of their plan. When this plan is shared, we will be asking landowners for permission to allow the coyote hunters to hunt on their properties with their dogs. This is done during the winter months and those in attendance who have allowed this in the past claim there appears to be no effect on the deer herd and this is an efficient approach to predator control.

We had over 1000 acres represented in person at the meeting, and many other landowners have pledged their cooperation and involvement. Please let Mark or Bob know immediately if you are willing to give your approval to the goals and guidelines, and we will consider you an active member of the co-op. Remember, the goals and guidelines are agreed among the members of the co-op and for our own benefit. They are based on the voluntary agreement of everyone, and it is only through that process of agreeing that our co-op will work.

If decide not to pledge, that’s ok. Please consider these guidelines going forward and always remember you can join and participate any time. Regardless of your decision, it would still be very much appreciated if you could record your harvest and observation data during the upcoming hunting season. This will help us make management decisions which in turn help everyone’s hunting opportunities, whether or not you have decided to pledge. And once again, please remember that landowner-specific data will be kept private and not shared with anyone.

We will be having another meeting next spring. We had a gun raffle in July, which raised money to pay for the refreshments that next meeting, and we should have really good attendance at that time. I hope that the co-op will provide education, bigger deer, a more satisfying hunting experience, and a very enjoyable time with all of our neighbors.

Bob & Mark

Presentation, July 14th, 2018

7/14/2018

Hello, and thanks for attending our meeting and leaving your email address.

We had a good meeting on May 5 and I feel we made great progress. Many people have gotten back to me with comments, and everyone seems pretty interested in moving forward with a cooperative. We have some shared ideas, and I think the group as a whole is interested in exploring the idea about what a cooperative effort can do for all of our hunting experiences.

To recap, and for the benefit of those who will receive this information but were not able to attend our first meeting, I would like to briefly summarize how things went.

We had introductions of the various people who would help with meeting, including Mark Trotta, John Hammer, Vivian and Roy Woodworth, and myself.

I talked about the concept of quality deer management, where we focus on herd management, habitat management, herd monitoring, and hunter management. After that, John Hammer reviewed statistics and information about the Yates county QDM cooperative, with its 400 members and 30,000 acres of shared information and common experiences.

A really good discussion followed, with a focus on predation, trespassing, the reproduction rate, and a fun discussion about which buck traveled from someone else’s property and ended up being shot on land owned by another co-op member.

The discussion did not end with any shared goals or guidelines for the group, but I feel we are getting there, and would like to move in that direction soon.

A card raffle for a $100 gift certificate donated by Louies Gunshop resulted in raising $100, and Roy Woodworth won the raffle. He generously donated a gift card back to the group, for the next raffle. Thanks Roy. We will put the gift card toward a donated gun, which will be raffled off at the next meeting, and hopefully we can raise enough at that time to cover meeting expenses.

The American Legion does not charge us for the hall, which is very generous of them, and hopefully they can make it back on memberships and drinks. Meeting expenses are not bad, but it is nice to have a meal for everyone, and the ordinary expenses of getting the message out and items for the meeting should be covered by donated raffle items.

We hope that everyone had a good time, and plans on coming to next meeting.

We have reserved the American Legion for July 14, at 2 PM. We will have a light lunch for everyone, and Diane from Countrycrossroads in Andover will come to discuss food plots and the items they have available. We have a couple of ideas of other people to invite, and I promise it will be a great experience for everyone. Please mark it off on your calendar and try to come.

At the next meeting I hope we can come up with some shared goals for the group and guidelines to carry them out. One thought is to use the goals and guidelines of the Yates cooperative, which are simple, easy to understand, and a good start. Their goals include a deer herd in balance with the habitat, a good buck - doe ratio, and an age structure that includes older bucks. They monitor on how many fawns survive, and seek a quality hunting experience for everyone, with adequate opportunities to take an older buck.

For the guidelines, Yates has agreed that it’s members will not shoot a buck with less than 14 inches outside antler spread. First time hunters and older hunters are exempt from this. Another guideline is that button bucks will not be shot, and that the doe harvest is in accordance with the carrying capacity of the land, after careful study. Of course accidents happen, and to further encourage community recruitment to our co-op, it should be noted that there are no QDM “police”. At this stage, it is more important that we come together as a group and have a good discussion about our goals and educate each other about the principles of QDM and the local herd and habitat of our 5,000+ acre neighborhood.

I think these guidelines are something we should all consider.

Mark Trotta has a pop quiz prepared for all of you, so study up! Mark is a computer savvy guy, and he has generously agreed to maintain our membership rolls and to handle communication. He has wonderful ideas for the co-op, and has been a big help, especially for someone who is not tech savvy like me. Thanks Mark!

We had 24 people sign in at the last meeting, and I personally know of several who really wanted to attend but couldn’t. I hope that the next meeting brings everyone back who attended last time, and please bring a friend, neighbor, or family member that you think would benefit from what we have to say. Once again thanks for coming and I really look forward to seeing you again soon.

-Bob Plaskov