PA Game Commission Awards 56 Elk Licenses /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
September 14, 2011
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — After a five-day delay prompted by Tropical Storm Lee flooding that forced the closure of state offices in the Harrisburg area last week, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today held a public drawing to award 56 elk licenses for the 2011 season. The event also was webcast via the agency’s website, drew 599 viewers, and served as a means to enable more people to view the public drawing. All 56 hunters selected to receive a license will be mailed a confirmation letter within about a week.
“Over the past two years, we have been pleased to enable the tens of thousands of individuals who apply for an elk license to find out via our webcast if they had been drawn,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “We recognize everyone who applies is unable to attend and, given our financial limitations, we can’t afford to send everyone who applied for an elk license a letter letting them know whether they were drawn; we only notify those who were selected.
“By webcasting the public drawing, we reached far more than the two dozen people who attended the event at the agency’s Harrisburg headquarters. In fact, according to the webcasting service we used for today’s broadcast, we saw there were 599 people tuned in at one time.”
Roe noted there were 18,253 individuals who applied for the drawing. An additional 487 applicants only purchased a preference point for this year, and were not included in the drawing.
“While state law prevents the agency from publishing a list of today’s winners, thanks to another of the agency’s technological leaps forward, those who were in today’s drawings can check on the status of their applications, by Sept. 23, thanks to the new Pennsylvania Automated License System (PALS),” Roe said. Click Link Below For Full Story!
Mixed reactions to proposal to change Pa. deer hunting season – York Dispatch
February 15, 2011
JOHN WALK The York Dispatch
When it comes to rifle deer hunting season, West Manchester Township resident Don Moul said he considers himself a traditionalist.The rifle hunting season begins the Monday after Thanksgiving and ends the second Saturday in December.So each year, Moul said, he travels to the mountains the Saturday after Thanksgiving to "get settled in and get things in place. So that way I’m ready to go that Monday."Legislation that was recently introduced to get the season to start sooner — the Saturday after Thanksgiving instead of Monday — would disrupt Moul’s schedule, he said.Legislation: Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Luzerne County, introduced the legislation last week.Mullery said he is pushing the legislation to help some hunters who expressed to him "an inability to enjoy the tradition of hunting because of an inability to get time off from work.""Several of the gentleman I spoke with were union workers who were unable to get off work for hunting because they’re so down on the totem poll to request off work," Mullery said.Opposition: But state Rep. Keith Gillespie, R-Springettsbury Township, said he believes most hunters would not be in favor of the change."I’m a big hunter. And I have a lot of hunting buddies. And they’re very much against it from a tradition standpoint," said Gillespie, who is also a member of the House of Representatives’ Game and Fisheries Committee. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Mixed reactions to proposal to change Pa. deer hunting season – York Dispatch.
Pennsylvania Pulls Welcome Mat Back From Poachers – Digital Journal
September 7, 2010
PR Newswire
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 7
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe said, starting today, the Commonwealth has begun to reverse its reputation of being a state with minimal risks for chronic poachers as new penalties – including higher fines and possible jail time – go into effect.
“Some chronic or commercial poachers considered Pennsylvania’s previous fines as merely a ‘cost of doing business,’” Roe said. “However, the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Gov. Rendell – with the support of the Game Commission and law-abiding hunters and trappers – pulled the welcome mat back from those who would consider poaching Pennsylvania wildlife when they enacted a law establishing a new slate of fines and penalties for those convicted of various poaching-related offenses.”
Act 54 of 2010 was introduced as House Bill 1859, and sponsored by House Game and Fisheries Committee Chairman Edward G. Staback. The bill was approved by the House on July 21, 2009, by a vote of 196-3. The Senate, after making minor adjustments to the bill, approved the measure unanimously on July 3, 2010, followed by a 189-6 concurrence vote in the House also on July 3, which sent the bill onto Gov. Rendell, who signed it on July 9.
“We want to thank Rep. Staback for his hard work and diligence in getting House Bill 1859 through the system,” Roe said. “It was not an easy task, but a needed one.
“Increasing penalties for serious violations is one of the operational objectives within the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Strategic Plan. This marks the first comprehensive piece of legislation to increase Game and Wildlife Code penalties since 1987, and we believe it will significantly enhance wildlife protection in the Commonwealth, especially since this marks the first time that some poachers could actually face prison time for their actions.”
Rep. Staback noted that, from Day One, when he first sat down with Carl Roe to talk about putting an anti-poaching bill together, he wanted the penalties to be so tough that they would become a deterrent, keeping people from committing the crime in the first place.
“I wanted that shooter to know that he faces high fines and jail time for breaking wildlife laws, not just a slap on the wrist like before,” Rep. Staback said. “After three years of effort, working side by side with the Game Commission, the new laws on the book treat poachers and black marketers just as they are – criminals who deserve the stiff penalties that they now will face in the court of law.”
Roe noted that, before the passage of this bill, a poacher could kill every big game animal – which includes deer, elk, bear and turkey – in Pennsylvania and the penalty was the legal equivalent of a traffic ticket with no possibility of jail time.
“Under this legislation, those convicted of killing five or more big game animals, or three big game poaching offenses within seven years, will face possible felony-level penalties ranging from $1,000 to up to $15,000, loss of license privileges for 15 years, and up to three years in prison,” Roe said. “In fact, even the poaching of a single deer now carries a minimum of a $1,000 fine and up to 90 days in jail, with five years license revocation.
“This is an enormous step forward in creating deterrence to poaching. It treats the theft of wildlife, which is what poaching is, similar to the theft of anything else in regards to punishment, and ultimately enhancing the protection of the Commonwealth’s wildlife resource.”
As examples of how the new law would be applied, Rich Palmer, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife Protection director, noted that a case from last December in which two individuals who went on a two-day poaching spree that resulted in at least eight dead deer were liable for up to $6,400 in fines and three years of hunting license revocations. Under the new law, for committing the same offense a violator would be looking at up to $15,000 in fines, up to three years in jail, and up to 15 years of license revocation.
In another example, two individuals were found guilty of killing a black bear out of season last year. They were each charged with committing a summary offense, with fines up to $1,500 and three years license revocation. Anyone caught committing the same crime now is facing a misdemeanor offense with fines up to $3,000, up to six months imprisonment, and five years of hunting license revocation.
The new law also includes heightened penalties for the buying and selling of game; increased fines for summary offenses, such as using unlawful methods or devices; increased penalties for the killing of threatened or endangered species; and increased jail time for non-payment of fines from 120 days to six months.
“For the person who jacklights a couple of deer, kills a bear to sell its gall bladder or claws, or goes on a killing spree for some twisted reason, Pennsylvania’s wildlife protection laws now for the first time include felonies and misdemeanors that fit the crime,” Rep. Staback said. “Sportsmen are the most vocal group demanding tough treatment of poachers because they know that not only does poaching deplete a resource, it gives a black eye to the sport that we all enjoy and respect.”
Roe noted that a second bill, Senate Bill 1200, would complete the state’s effort to discourage would-be poachers from committing their crimes in Pennsylvania. SB 1200 is Senate Game and Fisheries Committee Chairman Richard Alloway’s measure to enroll Pennsylvania in the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact. This bill passed the Senate unanimously on March 23, 2010, and presently is awaiting a final vote in the House of Representatives.
“By having Pennsylvania part of the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, anyone convicted of poaching-related offenses in Pennsylvania also would lose their hunting privileges in other IWVC-member states,” Roe said. “Similarly, those convicted of poaching-related offenses in other IWVC-member states would not be able to lawfully hunt in Pennsylvania.”
Given the variations of hunting laws from state to state, SB 1200 spells out the specific hunting violations that would place someone who loses their hunting privileges in another state on the Pennsylvania list of ineligible license buyers. This list also represents the only violations committed in Pennsylvania that will be added to the IWVC database. Those specific offenses listed in Senate Bill 1200 include: unlawfully using lights to take wildlife; buying and selling game; hunting or furtaking under the influence of drugs or alcohol; shooting at or causing injury to a human; counterfeiting, altering or forging a license or tag; committing violations related to threatened or endangered species; assaulting/interfering or causing bodily injury to a Wildlife Conservation Officer; hunting or furtaking while on revocation; and illegally taking or possessing big game in closed season. The list also would include those convicted of other wildlife crimes classified as fourth-degree summaries or greater, such as road hunting, if there are two convictions within a 24-month period.
“Enactment of these two bills will go a long way toward closing Pennsylvania’s borders to those who have proven themselves to be unrepentant poachers,” Roe said. “House Bill 1859 already has been enacted. The second bill, Senate Bill 1200, is nearing the finish line, and I urge our state legislators to enact this bill to improve the Game Commission’s ability to protect wildlife.
“Also, I thank the many sportsmen’s organizations for once again standing up for wildlife and for law-abiding and ethical hunters and trappers for supporting these two measures.”
With the increased penalties and the possibility of Pennsylvania soon joining the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, Roe noted that there is yet a third reason that poachers need to be wary of perpetuating their illegal practices in Pennsylvania: the general public.
“The Game Commission is noticing a renewed ‘we’re-not-going-to-take-it-anymore’ attitude from concerned residents and law-abiding hunters who are taking the initiative to report what they are seeing and hearing, and we applaud them for their efforts,” Roe said. “Calls and e-mails to our Turn-In-a-Poacher (TIP) Hotline have increased and resulted in several solid convictions. In fact, some of the information is so overwhelming that defendants simply pled guilty rather than having the embarrassment of going to court to try and defend their indefensible actions.
“The bottom line is that Pennsylvania will no longer be walked on – like a welcome mat – by those who abuse their hunting and trapping privileges in our state or other states.”
Note to Editors: If you would like to receive Game Commission news releases via e-mail, please send a note with your name, address, telephone number and the name of the organization you represent to: PGCNews@state.pa.us
SOURCE Pennsylvania Game Commission
via Pennsylvania Pulls Welcome Mat Back From Poachers – Press Release – Digital Journal.
Hunting: ‘Deer audit’ recommends Game Commission release population estimates – post-gazette.com
February 21, 2010
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!
via Hunting: ‘Deer audit’ recommends Game Commission release population estimates.
Crossbow issue to be revisited – PennLive.com
July 5, 2009
BY MARCUS SCHNECK mschneck@comcast.net
After fierce debate among sportsmen and members of the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners, crossbows are legal for use in archery seasons for bear and deer this fall and winter.
However, the agenda for this week's meeting of commissioners is expected to include preliminary consideration of a proposal from Commissioner Ron Weaner, who describes himself as an “avid archer,” to again restrict crossbow use, even before the new legalization.
Under his proposal, crossbows would be permitted during the first two weeks of the statewide early archery deer season; only by disabled hunters with a permit to use crossbows for the remainder of the early archery season and the late archery season; for all deer seasons, including the early and late archery seasons, in wildlife management units 2B, 5C and 5D; only by disabled hunters with special permits during the two-day archery bear season; and in muzzleloader deer hunting seasons by hunters with a license.
When he requested consideration of the proposal at the conclusion of the April commissioner meeting, Weaner said, “If it can happen for this year [which began July 1 for the new hunting license year], I'd like to see it happen this year.”
However, if commissioners give preliminary approval to the proposal this week, it would need to come up for second consideration and final approval in the future.
All materials offered to hunters for this fall and winter's hunting seasons list crossbows as legal throughout all archery seasons on deer and bear. Click Link Below for Full Story.
via Crossbow issue to be revisited – PennLive.com.
Bowhunters group decries crossbow ruling – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
February 11, 2009
By Bob Frye, TRIBUNE-REVIEW OUTDOORS EDITOR
The leaders of the United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania did not immediately make an official statement after Pennsylvania Game Commissioners approved crossbows for use in the statewide six-week archery season.
They have now.
It’s clear that the group’s positions have not changed: they disagree that crossbows are a primitive weapon and want the commission to track their use somehow.
“The United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania remain steadfast that the crossbow is a superior weapon to a bow and should not be permitted in archery seasons other than by those hunters who qualify as physically unable to draw and hold a bow,” reads the statement, released by the group’s president, Wes Waldron.
The statement goes on to say that allowing an unknown number of crossbows into the archery season, with no way to track participation or impact on the deer harvest, “represents a departure from the limited and incremental approach historically utilized when providing new or expanded hunting opportunity.” It further “depicts an overall deviation from the scientific, biological and social concerns of conscientious wildlife management.
“Therefore, we feel that any hunting license increase package must include a crossbow license to accurately track harvest and participation,” it concludes. Click link bel0w for full story
via Bowhunters group decries crossbow ruling – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Game Commission to expand crossbow hunting regulations – The Pocono Record
February 2, 2009
Pocono Record Writer
February 02, 2009
Bow hunters in Pennsylvania will be joined by hunters armed with crossbows during deer and bear seasons after the state Game Commission voted last week to expand crossbow use into regular archery season.
Under previous regulations only hunters with a disability permit signed by a doctor were allowed to use crossbows during archery season.
In years past, bow hunters have had a six-week archery season before firearm hunting begins to hunt in warmer temperatures before rifle-hunting season begins. The regulations will now prohibit the use of magnifying scopes on crossbows.
“We’re going to sell more crossbows because (the new law) is going to put more people in the field hunting,” said Terry Hill, archery department manager at Dunkelberger’s Sports Outfitter in Stroudsburg. “The important thing is this will get more people hunting that otherwise would not be able to.”
Hill said crossbow use is easier than bows that have to be pulled and the warmer temperatures during archery season are helpful to older hunters. But anyone who thinks crossbow use is akin to using a rifle is mistaken.
“The fact is guys are going to find out crossbows are not guns,” he said. “The effective area is wider than a bow but it is not like firing a gun.” Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Game Commission to expand crossbow hunting regulations – poconorecord.com – The Pocono Record.
LancasterOnline.com: One vote for big bucks
December 31, 2008
Lititz bowhunter Jason Garman traveled to Illinois this fall and bagged this 7-point buck with a rack that measured 149 inches. Such bucks are more common in the Midwest than in Pennsylvania
By P.J. REILLY, Staff Writer
State tag lottery could bring trophy whitetails to Pa.
•••
Anyone who wants Pennsylvania to become a true trophy whitetail state, raise your hand.
(My own arm is pointing skyward right now.)
I’m not talking about having a decent number of 120-class bucks running around.
I’m talking about having a legitimate shot, every time you go into the woods, at crossing paths with multiple bucks scoring 140 or better, and a very real possibility of bagging a Boone & Crockett class deer scoring 170 or better.
This is the type of hunting that trophy whitetail states such as Illinois, Iowa and Ohio offer.
Under the current deer management program and hunting regulations, Pennsylvania never will become a trophy whitetail state.
There are just too many hunters here with too many opportunities to kill non-trophy-class bucks.
I’m not saying this as a criticism of the state Game Commission’s management program, because, as the agency’s chief deer biologist — Chris Rosenberry — told me, the program is not intended to produce trophy bucks of the caliber I’m talking about. Click link below for full story!
via LancasterOnline.com:Outdoors:One vote for big bucks.
Pennsylvania deer hunt begins with painful lesson- SignOnSanDiego.com > Sports
December 3, 2008
By Ed Zieralski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
First in a series on hunting whitetail deer in Pennsylvania)
As I looked out the window of my Delta airplane near dusk on Saturday night, I was struck by the amount of brown ground that lay beneath me.
Where was the snow I’d heard about from my neighbor Dan Murphy in Warren? I soon found out. It was all around my cabin that I reached a few hours later.
Along the way, in the dark late autumn night, I saw two massive bucks, both toting huge racks and both with swollen necks, a telltale sign that the rut is on here.
Driving down the long driveway to my cabin, the headlights of my rental SUV lit up my front porch, draped in a blanket of icicles that nearly touched the ground from the 10-foot high porch. The gutter along the front of the cabin, the one I wanted to replace in the fall, was packed with ice and sagging badly. It later broke from the weight of the ice as I tried to break up the ice. The gas grill that I cooked steaks on during a summer family reunion had two feet of snow on it.
“Welcome to winter,” neighbor Murphy said to me Sunday morning as we began strategizing our opening day hunt.
Indeed, welcome to the ice box that is Northwest Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Valhalla of this country’s whitetail deer hunting.
Deer season opened Monday a half-hour before sunup. Kids take the day off from school. Work places allow hunters to take the day off. News teams from local TV stations visit cafes at 4 in the morning to interview hunters.
It’s still a state holiday, though not nearly as popular as it was as recently as 10 years ago. Later in this series I’ll explain why that is, but for now, let’s do some hunting.
Murphy and I developed an easy plan for opening day. Why go wandering all over the surrounding Allegheny National Forest and join the masses when we had two giant bucks on and working behind our properties? My driveway had trees rubbed to the hardwood by these bucks. We spent part of Sunday morning checking the tracks from these two bucks, which Murphy had identified as a 12-pointer and a 9-pointer. His trail camera caught a good shot of the 9-pointer, and he had another less sharp one of the 12-pointer, but there was no mistaking its rack size.
We met at 6:50 Monday morning and weren’t even off my back porch when we heard the first shot in our area. That was followed by a volley of a few more, and by the time we reached the forest boundary at least a dozen shots had cracked the morning air.
It sounded more like the opening of dove season in Imperial Valley, but the difference is these were high-powered rifles being fired at the Pennsylvania state critter.
“Are some guys still sighting in their guns, or are those shots?” I asked Dan as we trudged through the deep snow.
“Those are shots at deer,” he said and added disgustedly: “It’s because the doe season opened, too, and that just sucks. We used to just have buck season and then doe season, but they put them together.”
When we reached the forest, Dan split off and offered to do a big loop by walking downhill toward the Allegheny River. I decided to ease into walking in this deep snow in a forest I don’t know that well. I went to the top of the ridge behind our properties and waited to see if Dan pushed something or something else developed.
My hunt was interrupted by the sight of another hunter, unmistakable back here because all hunters must wear a minimum of 250 square inches of fluorescent orange on the head, chest and back combined, and it must be visible 360 degrees during deer season.
There’s nothing else in the woods that looks like fluorescent orange, and it really stands out.
When I spotted the hunter hunkered down in a small open blind, I was bothered at first. I figured I’d have this area behind my cabin to myself, but that was naive. I adjusted by moving about 100 yards to the north, where I settled in and figured I’d at least have an advantage at deer coming that way.
About 45 minutes later, I noticed the hunter moving, again, the orange stuff jumps out. Then, BOOM, a shot rang out, and I thought he’d fired. I watched the hunter below me move out and down, so I figured he was going to get his deer.
At least an hour later I saw two hunters dragging a deer up through the deep snow. Both were gassed.
Turns out the shooter wasn’t the hunter below me, but was Rick Zemanek, 37, from Erie, Pa., about an hour from our cabins here. Zemanek is a maintenance supervisor at Presque Isle State Park. His father owns the cabin north of mine, and Rick, a hunter for 25 years, has been hunting this area for the last 20 years. He and the hunter I had seen, Bruce Carnicelli, who have been hunting together for the last 10 years, both had a buck and a doe tag.
“This is my first deer in five years,” Zemanek said. “It used to be great hunting before they changed the regulation and allowed antlerless hunting during buck season.”
Zemanek’s buck will be one of more than 320,000 antlered and antlerless deer that will be shot in the next two weeks. The Pennsylvania Game Commission estimates 60 percent of that total was shot Monday before dark. Last year, Pennsylvania hunters killed 323,070 antlered and antlerless deer.
Ben Moyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote on Sunday: “By sundown tomorrow, something like 60 percent of the season’s total buck kill will be bagged, tagged and dragged.”
Moyer said that in the 1990s, before the Pennsylvania Game Commission instituted antler restrictions, opening day hunters harvested 80 percent of the total take.
I hunted Pennsylvania back then and I saw for myself. If it had fur and a white tail, it died back then.
Moyer also wrote that a Penn State study shows that hunter density drops to one hunter for every three square miles by Wednesday afternoon of the deer season’s first week.
I’m counting on that and so are my nephew and brother-in-law, both of whom will join me here Wednesday.
As for my hunt Monday, I wasn’t one of the lucky hunters. In fact, I’m pretty sure I blew a shot at a massive buck because I left my post early.
After talking to Zemanek and Carnicelli I moved farther up the ridge to where Zemanek had shot his buck. I could see where the deer was hit, where it ran and where it died. The snow was bloody in many areas.
After an hour of sitting and battling the freezing conditions as long as my California-thinned blood could stand, I returned to camp to get warm and have some lunch. A couple hours later Dan Murphy emerged behind my cabin. Turns out, he’d had quite a hunt. He’d passed on a small buck that was legal (3 points or better on one side, at least one inch in length from base to tip), but if I’ve learned one thing about my new Pennsylvania neighbor it’s that he does not shoot small deer.
I told him about Zemanek’s buck, and I assured him that it wasn’t one of the two bucks he’d captured on film on his trail camera.
But then Dan saved his bad news for last. As he was walking out, he picked up a small blood trail of a buck walking with two does. The buck wasn’t bleeding badly, and it was walking uphill and never did lie down, both good signs.
“It had huge tracks,” Dan said. “It’s a big buck. Someone shot a big buck and didn’t get him.”
Dan tracked it for at least a mile and a half before giving up on it.
“I just lost the track in some pine trees and never could find them again,” he said. “I wasn’t far behind it.”
Then there was more bad news.
“I saw where you were standing down there on the ridge,” he said. “You must have left just before it walked right by where you were. You must have just missed me, too.”
We took a break and hunted a couple of hours before dark in an incredible area south of here, but the whole time I kept thinking that I missed my chance to put that buck out of its misery, missed my chance to get a buck on opening day. Neither of us saw the antlers, but we saw the tracks.
“I just hope it wasn’t the big one,” Dan said.
——————————————————————————–
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA – Back to the field
October 22, 2008
Sportsmen prepare for the fall seasons
By Connie Mertz
For The Daily Item
The fall hunting seasons are fast approaching. While there is a great deal of interest in small game hunting, there is even more hype when it comes to pursuing wild turkey, bear, deer and elk.
The seemingly oddball of the four appears to be the wild turkey. It certainly is the smallest of the four, but it ranks up there in popularity.
“Turkey hunting is among the most challenging and rewarding type of outdoor recreation available to the hunting public,” claims Calvin DuBrock, Wildlife Management Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “Populations are increasing due to careful science-based management.”
The spring estimated wild turkey population was about 335,000. Last fall, there were 162,300 turkey hunters but only 25,300 of them harvested a turkey. Even though hunters can harvest either a bearded turkey or a hen, the number of fall turkey hunters afield have been decreasing since the mid 1990s, according to DuBrock.
“The trend of lower harvests is due to a combination of shorter seasons in almost half of the WMUs (Wildlife Management Units) since 2004, average to below average spring reproduction, fewer fall turkey hunters and abundant fall mast crops, which tend to disperse turkey flocks making them more difficult for Full Story
Recent Comments