State parks announces pheasant hunt lottery

The Niagara Frontier State Park Region announces the annual permit lottery for the 2011 pheasant-hunting season will take place Friday, Sept. 30. This event will include the drawing for both the youth hunt and the regular season hunt.

Permits will be required for the two days expected to draw the heaviest hunting traffic for the youth hunt, which will be Saturday, Oct. 8, and Sunday, Oct. 9. The youth hunt this year will allow for a second hunter on the permit. For the regular season hunt, permits will be required for the three days expected to draw the heaviest hunting traffic. Those days are Saturdays, Oct. 15, 22 and 29.

There will be two separate hunts each day. The first hunt will be from sunrise until 12:30 p.m. The second hunt will be from 12:30 p.m. until sunset.

Hunting throughout the pheasant season (Oct. 15 to Dec. 31) is allowed at two state parks: Golden Hill and Wilson-Tuscarora. Permits, however, are required on Oct. 8, 9, 15, 22 and 29.

Hunters interested in entering the permit lottery should mail in a separate, standard size 3-by-5-size file card for each date and park they'd like to hunt. Only one permit will be issued to each hunter per day. Cards may be put into one envelope for each respective park and mailed together to the appropriate address listed below. Send to:

•Golden Hill State Park     

c/o Gregory Brown, 9691 Lower Lake Road, Barker, NY 14012. (Phone: 716-795-3885)

•Wilson Tuscarora State Park

 c/o David Giambra, 3371 Lake Road, Wilson, NY 14172 (Phone: 716-751-6361)

File cards should include: Applicant's name, address, telephone number, email address, hunting license back tag number, hunt date, and desired park location.

Entries will be computerized to avoid duplications. All lottery entries must be received by noon on Friday, Sept. 30.

As in the past, stocking will be done by the DEC. There is no hunting on release days, Oct. 21 and 28. There is no fee for the permit, and hunters awarded permits will have the option of naming one additional hunter on their permit.

There will be 30 small game hunting permits issued for Golden Hill State Park and 16 at Wilson-Tuscarora for each of the five days, including the youth hunt. These will cover both the morning and afternoon Hunts.

Successful applicants will be notified by mail or email.