Teresa Ruiz at the DEC and I had a nice conversation today. It came to my attention that some falconers are having trouble with USPS delivering their annual reports, including items being returned as undeliverable, or just never showing up. If that's you, Teresa is seeing it too - she's only got half the reports she should so far!
First, please verify that you have sent in your annual report. If you have not, or it got returned in the mail, please take the following steps to get it done ASAP, as described by Teresa:
You can email your completed reports and current, valid NY hunting licenses directly to Teresa at SpecialLicenses@dec.ny.gov, or Teresa.Ruiz@dec.ny.gov.
- Yes, this includes folks that don’t have a bird and haven’t hunted - Special Licenses need reports from you too. A scan is fine, or take a picture of the document. Both sides of the form!
- No, you don’t need to send in a hard copy if you email it.
- Yes, it needs to be on the Falconry Annual Report Form. Please don’t make Teresa decipher a report submitted on a coffee stained napkin. Here’s the link to the page where you can find the form if you need a copy: https://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/28632.html
- Please do add it as an attachment to the email, do not drop a pic into the body of the email. Outlook gets angry when the DEC tries to print an email with a picture in it and then Teresa has to spend time saving it into a printable format.
The faster Teresa can get our annual reports logged, the sooner she can get to the growing stack of upgrade requests! The DEC is aware that paperwork has piled up, and they are as frustrated as some of us at the delivery problems mail has going on. Let's work with them to try and get these reports filed in a timely fashion.
If you have any questions about those directions, or problems finding the forms online, you can reach out to me directly at vicepresident@nysfa.org. Thanks!
Matthew Vercant, NYSFA Vice President
