Pennsylvania Notes
Articles taken from local newspapers regarding hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania.
12/31/2006- Deer management
This is an issue that some hunters hope won’t surface again, others hope to resolve it and some look forward to keeping the debate going. The Pennsylvania Game Commission made few adjustments to the program, despite pleas from hunters and lawmakers to do something to increase the population. Antlerless allocations were cut slightly, but the concurrent two-week buck and doe season remained in place. Many hunters in the area reported seeing few deer during the December rifle season, but reports and harvests of large-racked bucks appeared to climb. The current deer management plan is set to expire next year. Dr. Chris Rosenberry, the PGC’s deer management section supervisor, said the agency will begin the process of revising the plan in 2007. Will the revisions quell hunters’ concerns, or will the agency stay the course? Stay tuned. -By TOM VENESKY, Times Leader
Sunday hunting and the hunting license fee increase
State Rep. Ed Staback (D-Lackawanna/Wayne) is poised to become the majority chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee. He will also re-introduce his bill trying to make Sunday hunting legal and give the PGC the authority to determine when and for what species it is implemented.
Staback has also been vocal about the PGC’s repeated requests for a hunting license fee increase. The agency is strapped for cash and has already cut several programs. Many districts are without a wildlife conservation officer, and the number of vacant districts will rise this year as retirements take effect. The agency doesn’t have the money to bring in a new class of WCOs, but legislators aren’t ready to grant a license fee increase unless the PGC makes concessions with its deer program. Both sides have good arguments that boil down to one question: What’s more important to the game commission – staying the course with its deer management program or obtaining a much-needed hunting license fee increase? It might not seem like the fairest process, but that’s how things stand heading into 2007.
Fur taker license sales increase
While sales of general hunting licenses dropped 1 percent in 2006, furtaker license sales increased by 10 percent. The hike stems from a long overdue rebirth of trapping and the popular coyote hunts springing up across the state.
Northeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of Pheasants Forever
The new chapter hit the ground running this spring, outlining an ambitious plan to restore wild pheasants in the area with an emphasis on habitat improvement. The group also held its first mentored youth hunt last October at state game lands 119 in Bear Creek. The hunt attracted dozens of youth hunters.
Decline of wild brook trout and snowshoe hare
Not everything in 2006 was a success story. A Trout Unlimited study found wild brook trout have been eliminated or greatly reduced in more than 70 percent of their traditional habitat in Pennsylvania. Land development, warmer water and competition from introduced brown trout are to blame, according to the study.
On land and facing a similar threat, the snowshoe hare is in danger of disappearing from the state, according to research conducted by Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. A landscape consisting of more maturing forests than dense stands of conifers and regenerating hardwoods have put the hare in jeopardy. A lack of snowy winters doesn’t help either, as the snow white hare becomes easy pickings for predators.
Fewer trout … bigger trout
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will stock approximately 2 million pounds of trout in 2007, the same weight as the 2006 stocking. But there will be slightly fewer fish. The PFBC has decided to increase the average size of stocked trout by 30 percent, to nearly two-thirds of a pound.
While this doesn’t bode well for sheer numbers, it should make anglers’ creels a bit heavier at the end of the day.
-By TOM VENESKY, Times Leader