Officials are seeing an uptick in the number of New Yorkers with hunting and fishing licenses.
As of last week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation sold over 500,000 hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for the 2008-09 season. That was up about 75,000 people from a year earlier.
New York DEC officials say that reverses a trend in recent years, which have seen declines in the number of licenses.
The state’s big game season begins September 27th with bow hunting in the Northern Zone, including the Adirondacks, followed later by hunters with muzzle loaders, then rifles and shotguns.
New York also expanded its junior hunter’s license this year to include big game, allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to shoot deer alongside licensed adult hunters.