Sportsmen’s Federation

To the editor:

New York State’s ban of coyote hunting contests will have several effects for our Sportsmen’s Federation. First, we will lose the $12,000 average revenue that we receive each year from the event.  It is our largest fundraiser, and the money is used for our various programs such as our Youth Day at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds, sending children to the DEC’s Camp DeBruce, our youth fishing contest at Morningside Park, our youth ice fishing derby at Crystal Lake on the Boy Scouts 10 Mile River property, fish stocking, pheasant stocking and habitat creation, to name but a few. Second, having the contest banned means a loss of an average of over $3,000 for one of our local fire departments that hosts the dinner for us. Our Federation is proud to partner with the firemen to help them raise funds through our event. Third, not having a contest means that the USDA fish and wildlife division and the students from SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, which come every year to collect samples for disease studies in the coyotes, will no longer have a cost effective way of obtaining a large number of samples for their work. Those studies benefit the coyote population and several dozen hunters assist with this every year at our contest. Our Federation is proud to help with these important biological studies and the positive impacts that they have on our environment.