In the land of Levittown and strip malls, hunting binds generations on LI

Daniel Johnson raised his 12-gauge shotgun and fired off two quick blasts as a rooster pheasant cackled and cut a flight between two large pine trees.

“Not much I could do with that bird,” he said with a chuckle as the pheasant kept flying, apparently unharmed. “When you flush them in this thick cover, your odds are always on the low side.”

Johnson, 41, and Samantha McKelvey, 29, were hunting over their 4-year-old golden Labrador retriever, Red, on the Rocky Point Pine Barrens State Forest, a 6,000-acre area of open lands managed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. It’s a passion they share, a “lifestyle choice, really,” said McKelvey, and it’s a tie that binds not only the East Patchogue couple but generations of outdoors enthusiasts and families across Long Island.

“I started hunting with my dad as a kid,” said McKelvey, who tagged along in the woods long before she could carry a gun. “I was with him when he shot his first buck, a nice six-pointer we took on some property upstate. We hunt together now from time to time, and we talk about it a lot, too.

“This sport really helped me get to know him better as a person. It let me see sides of his personality that didn’t come out while I was growing up. It really has brought us together over the years,” she said.

Indeed, in the land of Levittown and strip malls, many Long Island families consider hunting outings to be an important way to spend quality time together. There are myriad practical reasons for hunting: culling deer, turkey, goose and duck populations, honing such skills as archery, or simply harvesting food as a way to stay connected to the land, for example. Among Long Island’s hunting community, the thrill of the kill rarely ranks near the top of the motivations.

“For us, hunting is about tradition,” said Dan McNamara, 47, of East Quogue. He and his wife, Cyndi, 40,  have a tradition of spending Thanksgiving morning sitting in a duck blind with their children, Jocelyn, 16, and Taylor, 13.

“We climb into our blind just before daybreak, huddle together in the cold, and just talk quietly while we wait for the ducks to come in. All the preparation for our hunts, the discussions and being afield together really unite us as a family,” Cyndi said. “It provides a unique perspective on the world that helps us stay focused in this crazy day and age.”

They like to let the kids get the first shots, they said, “but we all have a chance at taking something whenever we head out. Of course, we eat whatever we harvest.”

While they spend Thanksgiving morning in a hunting blind, the McNamaras feast on turkey that evening. Any ducks they are lucky enough to take are served throughout the year. “We make smoked duck sausage and grill it up, too," said Dan.

Like the McNamaras, the Reinas of Commack regularly hunt as a family. Bowhunting for deer is their favorite pastime.

Donna Reina, 51, is the secretary for the Suffolk Archers, a club with 500 members, a shooting range and 20-acre forest in Huntington Station. A veteran hunter, her husband, Nick, 52, has taken “just about anything you can get locally,” she said. She and her son, John, 14, are “new to the game.”

“I’m hunting about seven years now, and John just started last year,” Donna explained. “Neither of us has gotten a deer yet, but we love going out and trying; we love the preparation and the anticipation. Hunting is already forever ingrained in our family DNA whether we harvest something or not. For us, simply getting out is the important thing.”

Said John, “I enjoy getting close to nature and observing different types of wildlife while I wait for the deer. I also like that it’s my choice to shoot or pass. There’s never any pressure to actually take something when I’m hunting with my family, although I’m hoping this season that I do get a chance to make that decision.”

Careful coexistence

Long Island’s increasing density and disappearing open spaces mean hunters and suburbia at times coexist uneasily. Earlier this month, Babylon Town residents asked local and state officials to curb waterfowl hunting over apprehensions about the danger to children playing outdoors; and separate lawsuits in Smithtown and Asharoken in the past few years are among those that have challenged regulations. Opponents of hunting also cite ethical concerns, for example, that a poorly placed shot can merely cripple wildlife.

Enthusiasts are quick to point out that each hunter must pass a comprehensive seven-hour DEC hunter education course, and archers need to take an additional bowhunter education course. According to the DEC, which regulates hunting, 19 hunting accidents, including one fatality in upstate Chautauqua, were reported in 2017 among more than 500,000 licensed hunters.

In the past 10 years, the DEC has recorded one waterfowl-related shooting in Nassau and Suffolk counties that involved a hunter, said Bill Fonda, a DEC regional spokesman for the counties. “Most hunting-related shooting incidents are self-inflicted. Two-party incidents occur less frequently, and two-party incidents involving a nonhunter rarely occur.”

Indeed, the agency relies on hunters to contain growing deer populations.Said Fonda: "DEC’s primary method of controlling overabundant deer continues to be the harvest of antlerless deer during the fall hunting seasons."

While statistics show that hunting in the state is safer than ever, mistakes are made every year. “Every hunting-related shooting incident is preventable,” Fonda said, “and DEC encourages hunters to use common sense this season and remember what they were taught in their DEC Hunter Education Course.”

Hunting enthusiasts also note strict regulations that govern the sport and that taxes on hunting and fishing gear generated by the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration and Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration acts provide substantial revenue. Taxes on hunting firearms, ammunition, archery equipment, sportfishing tackle, boat engines and small engine fuel are passed to the consumer in the product’s price. The U.S. Department of Interior says more than $28.6 million was generated for New York State conservation and outdoor projects in 2017.

“That money goes towards the good of everyone: nature lovers, birders, photographers, hikers, cyclist, boaters, fishermen and hunters; everyone who loves the great outdoors,” Nick Reina said.

For Rob Greco Sr., 56, and his son, Robbie, 31, of Oceanside, hunting has long been a family affair. The senior hunter owns Long Island Outdoorsman, a hunting and fishing retailer in Rockville Centre.

“I’ve hunted and fished pretty much my entire life,” said the senior Greco. “My grandfather was an avid outdoorsman, and I hunted with him for decades. He’s 85 now, and I still call him after every hunting trip to keep him in the loop.”

Robbie Greco has followed in his father’s footsteps. Like his dad, he’s been hunting (or at least tagging along) in the woods and on the water as long as he can remember.

Hunting is also something the younger Greco is passing onto the next generation. “We hunt for ducks, geese, deer, turkey — anything that is legally in season,” he said. “I started my stepson, Louis, when he was 12. I have another son, Victor, who is about 16 months old. Already, I can’t wait for him to join us.”

Experts note that breaking into the sport of hunting is easiest for those who have a family mentor — but that doesn’t have to be the case. When they wanted to expand their hunting to become better bowhunters, the Reina family joined the Suffolk Archers.

“We found so much help and good will when we joined up,” recalled Donna Reina. “For one thing, our son, John, is right-handed but left-eye dominant, which made it hard for him to aim.” That prompted one member to help John “learn a more instinctive shooting style, which improved his shooting accuracy dramatically,” Donna explained. Other members regularly offer general tips and advice, she said.

Samantha McKelvey said that when she realized her interest in hunting put her outside the mainstream, she began to specifically seek others who enjoyed outdoors sports.

“I found hunting allowed me to increase the number of important people in my life, and to stretch that across generations,” she said with a smile. “Your friends don’t have to all be the same age, you know. One of my best, in fact, is someone I met through training our hunting dogs for field trials. She’s in her 60s, but I call her all the time and I benefit greatly from her wisdom and friendship.”

Jarrette Brathwaite of Huntington said that even if you start hunting on your own, you can quickly get wrapped up in the sport. He began by targeting opossum at night with his dad in his native Trinidad but had to find his own way after moving to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1975.

“I was lucky that an athlete on a soccer team I coached lived on a 600-acre property,” explained Brathwaite, who says he is in his 70s. “His father gave me permission to hunt there.” When he moved to Long Island in 1982, he hunted deer upstate during gun season. Six years ago he began bowhunting — his passion today.

He said he got “great advice” from the staff at The Campsite Sport Shop in Huntington Station, especially in terms of where to go.

Like the Reinas, Brathwaite joined the Suffolk Archers, where he found expert marksmen willing to help him grow with the bow. In turn, he’s helped others — including the Reinas —  improve their archery skills.

“My father gave me a love of hunting and for that I’ll always be thankful,” Brathwaite said, “but it was the friendship and help of the local hunting community that got me up to speed with bowhunting here.

“These days,” he said, “I bowhunt for whitetails [deer] on Long Island. I’m not into trophy hunting, really. Mostly, I hunt for the meat. I also consider myself a conservationist. I think it’s important for people to realize that the two are not mutually exclusive.”

According to Rob Greco Sr., one of the most common things hunters mention when they come into his shop is a desire to pass on the tradition of land stewardship. “They want to pass this down from one generation to the next,” he said. “That seems to be a central theme when I speak with families about the sport.”

Greco is no different. For his grandson’s first birthday last summer, he gave the toddler a lifetime New York State Sportsman’s license. The game plan, he says, is to hunt and fish with him someday.

“I want the tradition to continue, too,” Greco said. “I want my kids and their kids to grow up to be responsible, ethical hunters and conservationists. I want them to share my love for being afield and to ensure the future of our sport for other generations. For many hunters, I think those are the important things. Harvesting a trophy? Well, that’s just an extra reward for all the work and effort.”