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The Sportsman's Corner

Time to Buy Hunting Licenses

June 17 is the first day to buy hunting licenses for the 2019-00 hunting seasons. It will be interesting to see how many additional hunters drop out of hunting because of the PGC's short-sighted policies. If I didn't already have a lifetime license, I don't know whether I would spend the money on a Pennsylvania license, though turkey hunting would probably keep me in the license-buying fold.

I am concerned about the future of wild-turkey hunting. The population of birds has shrunk throughout the state. The May "Pennsylvania Game News" noted that the turkey population in WMA 4A, the local area, has declined by 37% over 10 years. In what is probably an appropriate biological measure (though it makes tagging a fall bird even more difficult for me), the autumn season has been limited to one week, plus Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Friday in 4A. But, in keeping with inconsistent game commission policies, in WMA 4A, as with the rest of the state, one can purchase a $20.00 tag to kill a second spring gobbler. With a precipitous 37% decline in birds, one would think the biologist in charge would advocate that no extra gobbler tags be sold in WMA 4A. According to the recent audit of the PGC, the commission does not need the money.

I'm sure that sportsmanlike deer hunters are upset that antlerless deer license numbers have increased to 900,000 statewide. There will be more antlerless deer tags sold than there will be hunters. Game hogs are no doubt excited, knowing they'll be able to acquire even more doe tags than before. For a $6.90 tag, there is no reason to poach deer illegally when the commission essentially legalizes what poachers do with the unconscionable number of antlerless tags it sells. WMA 4A will get 42,000 of these, up 3,000 from last year. This might not be enough to appease those in the commission who want to have sharpshooters come in and kill hundreds (thousands?) of deer in the name of CWD after deer seasons end. Sportsmen for the Future, out of Roaring Spring; concerned landowners; and Rep. Jim Gregory were able to halt this "targeted shooting" last winter. However, you can bet this idea will rear its ugly head again.

Around Williamsburg this spring, sportsmen were concerned that the PGC was going to set fire to a rocky mountainside in the name of habitat improvement. Instead, the firestarters senselessly burned patches beside woodland roads. The fear remains that this was a precursor to the burning off of the entire mountainside.

 

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