Really, is this a joke? The NYS Department of Conservation (DEC) is already telling me how far I can move my firewood, where I have to buy my minnows for fishing, that I can’t feed the deer and now they are throwing out advice on cleaning my birdfeeder? That’s a huge area of concern I’m sure…contaminated bird feeders. How about, in the next month or so, as the snow melts, the DEC spend their extra time and money monitoring any stream in the vicinity of any modern dairy farm (factory) in St. Lawrence County. Excess manure and fertilizer from these farms runs, eventually, into every waterway in the area. The DEC has allowed many farmers to ditch the field runoff directly into designated brooks and streams. Maybe NYS environmental concerns should be directed at something with a little more impact than a dirty birdfeeder.