Sometimes trying to compose a truly informative and useful outdoor column can be a test of should readers know this, or do they care? It’s pretty easy to write about how good or poor the current fishing conditions are, or pass along some useful tips garnered from sportsmen and women who are having success. But our state’s outdoor recreational world - especially the portions run by the various divisions within the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation -is anything but consistent and can change at the whim of a powerful political group.

Make no mistake, the NYSDEC may administer the various regulations that allow us to recreate in our state’s outdoors, and it manages the habitat and fish and wildlife that are part of it, but only to the extent the state legislature deems appropriate, and that falls back on what bills are supported and what ones are deemed “unfavorable” to pass, often based on regional interests. And usually the dividing line as to legislation success or failure lies quite squarely between upstate and downstate political power, with the latter usually, but not always, winning.