I see very little done in any game lands in my area.

 
Well let's see... are there parking lots on those game lands ??
Who maintains and cleans those..
 
Is the grass cut ???
Who does that..
 
How about a food plot or two ??
Who takes care of that..
 
What about signs, letting folks know this is game lands ??
Who takes care and replaces those??
 
I could go on and on... most of the work the land manangement crews do is not that visable... plus just how many folks do you think are on those crews and how many do we have for the entire state ??
 
One of the ones near me has 6.. THAT'S SIX people ....and they cover about 4 different counties.... they have about 4 pieces of equipment and at times take about a half a day just moving the equipment from one location to another...
 
Maybe you should find out who and how many folks are working the SGLs you are referring too... and ask what they do and why they do not do more.... heck volunteer to help  --- I'm sure they wouldn't say NO !!!!
 
 

Less then $40,000/yr to hold a job with game commission not high ranking. I would love to be an officer I just cant take a paycut like that.

Dr. Trout, see there you go getting all worked up. I can see there is no use arguing with you , all I was trying to say is I would like to see more done. You must agree you said it yourself "not alot is being done" . Mabey your way of thinking is silly. I can see you are very hard headed, but you are right everybody else is wrong. They have you fooled

Wish we all could live in Dr . Trout world, deer everywhere,game comission does a great job, its perfect.

Doc, I agree with your beliefs also. I have talked to older "hunters" around Central Pa. I tell them about my deer sighting while I am hunting or scouting(IN the WOODS). They just shake their heads and tell me there are NO DEER anymore. One guy told me he DROVE around all summer long and only saw 5 deer. I said I believe you, but how many did you see IN the WOODS. He just shook his head and said the PGC is killing all the deer, and it does not matter whether your in the woods or not.  Don't deer live in the woods, not on the road? I also think the PGC is doing a very good job. I never thought the average bucks I now see would be 8 pts!!!  I think there are a lot of LAZY people around. They must have forgot how to hunt.    Just my personal observation.

you're 27... that explains a lot
 
roughly 13 years experince in the woods compared to over 50
 
I guess one of our probelms is you talk your area... and I talk mine....
 
example...

look around in deer season people everywhere on public ground

 
Once again I have to refer to SGL#54/#44... part of which is my back yard and its where I do 80% of my hunting and have since 1960.....  my home is locate where our deer hunting camp use to be...
 
A major road the PGC opens for rifle season on SGL#54/SGL#44 is about 12 miles long....
in the 60s, 70s, 80s, you could count a hundred vehicles parked along it....
 
90s it fell to maybe 50.... 2000 to now... MAYBE 25......
 
The parking lot nearest to my home (1 mile away) would be packed full and vehicles on both sides of the road  by 6:00am for years and years and years... then in the 1990s it too started to fall...
 
As mentioned I could not hunt last year but was driven around for awhile... there were 9 vehicles in that lot and we counted 17 on the 12 mile road....
 
The woods behind my house were packed with guys  in the "good old days".. now... we do not see any hunters except the ones from camps located  here....
no strangers...so that means about 12-18 guys in a 2 square mile area....
 
so deer are not getting pushed because of alot of hunters like "the good old days" here either..... and I hear the same from others who hunt other parts of #54  and #44 not many hunters like before...
 
some of our group see over 20 while others (while even in the same 2 sq miles) see ZERO ...average about 10..
 
The guys down in the hollow see the most.. always have... always will..
 
guys on the flats "on top" see the fewest... always have... always will...
 
but they don't want to go up and down the steep sides of the hollw... DUhhh.....
 
me... I'm in my hemlock grove... the #1 hiding spot once the shooting starts
and usually home by noon...
 
 
this year ??????
 
I have 7 in my pasture every night.. maybe I'll be home before 9  
 
I have harvested a deer on Clear Creek State Forest for about 6 straight years too (DMAP) .... and believe it or not.... HAVE NEVER RAN INTO ANOTHER HUNTER.... !!
 
But I do not hunt from parking areas over there either... I park along the roads I travel... between parking areas where I see deer crossing all the time during the year
 
So all I can say is --- I wish you all lived in an area like this to,  OR ..you can visit my site in rifle season and see similar statements from folks all over Pa... even in 2G
 
Successful hunters will continue to be successful and HAPPY  ..
 
those that are not successful-- 
 
WILL NOT.. it's that simple....

I think if you take a minute and realize just how many a 5-10% decrease in hunters actually is... and add to that the number who, like no place, moved to private lands or joined leases... one would have to say there truly are not as many hunters on public ground as there use to be.... and thus deer will not be inclined to "run around" like they did in years past... now at first sign of humans it's HIDE...HIDE...HIDE...wait until dark to move.... I see it every year..
 
By the first day of rifle I will be lucky to have ANY deer coming into my pasture, the seven I have now will have moved to different bedding areas and will come out long after dark and leave long before daylight... 
 
I had guys come into the store yesterday saying they were surprised that they had NOT seen ANY hunters in the woods yesterday around here... and belive me it was a beautiful day for hunting... NOT working

Maybe allow night hunting with infrared scopes, then you'd see the deer. They're nocturnal. Most trailcam photos of decent bucks occur in the middle of the night, on my camera. As for no deer, I got 252 pics in 4 days, 7 different bucks & 2 nice "shooters". In the same area, hardly ever see a deer in the daytime. As for night hunting, I was joking.

Interesting thread here, I'm not exactly sure where to start. Yes the deer herds are decreasing. Q- Who's to blame? A- The hunters. We can **** all we want to about spending all season in the field only to see a small handfull of deer but who pulls the trigger ? Since the state started selling bonus/surplus lic. we jumped at the chance to harvest more than one deer a year. Over the years, how many extra tags have all of you reading this forum purchased ? How many of you have been harvesting more than one deer per year? Yeah lets just purchase all the tags we can get so we can kill more deer and give them away to people that don't hunt. As long as we can find someone to give a deer to, we'll kill it ! How much venison is discarded from freezer burn ? Big Waste !! We will never see the deer herds like we had back in the 70's if we keep harvesting them the way we have been. We need to take it upon ourselves and stop harvesting the doe's. The PGC's antler restictriction does'nt help either. Has anyone ever eaten a good antler ? Just another tactic to get you to shoot a doe ! Oh I guess we should mention Insurance Co's here also !!
        Q- Lack of interest ? A- Your just suffering from depression because over the years, everyone has killed all the breeding stock. Take some Prozac, Quit shooting doe's and get over it.
 
        Q- Decline in Hunters ? A- Oh my, if little Johnny and Janie don't play soccer we must be bad parents !! But everybody else plays ! SCREW everybody else !!! It's a conspiracy !! Oh but the children need to get exercise. THROW AWAY all Video Games they will learn how to play them in the army !!! Make sure they eat healthy and take gym class. Go on bike rides,spend time together as a family instead of stressing out running them to all points of the county for BS activities. Let them get exercise hiking through the woods with you ! And explain to them that if we shoot all the MOMMY DEER there won't be any deer left to produce all of these big monster bucks with the yummy antlers !! 
  
         Q- Is the PGC underfunded ?  A- Yes, Unfortunately !  Come on, lets be real, With the Price of everything else rising the way it is, it can be very costly to operate a state dept of any kind. Wages, Land Purchases, Projects, Equipment, Maintenance etc....! But if the Top Gov officials didn't take so much of our hard earned tax dollars for their HARDLY earned blood and sweat salarys, there would be more to pay the people who truly deserve it and to take care of the things we really need to take care of. Then there would be no need to increase lic fees. But Golly Gee, then the top officials would'nt be able to afford their second, third or forth homes, all their different cars for different occasions, What was I thinking ??
 
Oh well, Good luck to everyone and God Bless !!