Hunting: ‘Deer audit’ recommends Game Commission release population estimates – post-gazette.com

By Ben Moyer

If you hunt deer, you’ve heard the question — possibly asked it yourself: “How many deer are in Pennsylvania?”

Some kind of answer may be on the horizon. The long-awaited “deer audit,” released Feb. 16 to the state Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC), says the Pennsylvania Game Commission should make public the deer population estimates it uses to set antlerless license allocations.

Titled “The Deer Management Program of the Pennsylvania Game Commission: A Comprehensive Review and Evaluation,” the nonbinding review of the deer management plan was conducted by Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), a non-political organization based in Washington, D.C. WMI has conducted similar reviews of fish and wildlife programs in 40 states and four Canadian provinces. In view of hunter discontent with the Game Commission's current deer program, LBFC commissioned the audit to determine if the program was scientifically sound.

“The PGC should publish the estimates of population size and age and sex structure …,” the audit states. “WMI does not agree that population estimates need to be shielded from the public. Doing so, in WMI’s view, has weakened the trust placed in the PGC by the public and has affected the agency’s credibility.”

The Deer Management Program of the Pennsylvania Game Commission

How many of the state's 800,000 deer hunters have read the audit isn’t known, but many who have appear to agree.

“I don’t see why making the population estimates public is a problem,” said Randy Santucci, southwest director for the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania. “Transparency in government is always positive. Yes, the trend analysis is there, but we don’t see any quantifiable data to support [the PGC's] qualitative approach. It’s all very abstract.”

In April 2008, Unified Sportsmen filed a lawsuit against the Game Commission alleging that the agency “improperly authorized the decimation of Pennsylvania’s deer herd.”

Jerry Feaser, Game Commission press secretary, admits that his agency has population estimates for each wildlife management unit, but maintains the estimates themselves are not the point.

“[The audit] is suggesting that we offer population estimates to the public. We will discuss that, but obviously it will reignite the controversy over a number, which, while satisfying that interest does nothing to further management,” Feaser said. “An exact number is irrelevant to the goal of this program, which is to balance hunting recreation with the impacts deer have on society and on their own habitat.”

Feaser said there’s a “pitfall” in focusing on numbers.

“We don’t have an estimated number of deer, we have a range,” he said. “[Exact numbers] draw attention away from the real issues. Tracking the trends is what’s important, and we do that.”

Despite WMI’s suggestion that PGC publish its population estimates, the audit commended the deer program in concept.

“All parties interested in deer management in Pennsylvania can be confident in the ability of the PGC to track deer population trends at the statewide and wildlife management unit scale through the SAK [sex-age-kill estimating model],” the audit states.  Click link below for full story!

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