DEER MANAGEMENT IN PA

ORIGINAL: grt0404

 I THINK ITS TIME OR THE SPORTSMEN TO TAKE A STAND AND REFUSE TO BUY A HUNTING LICENSE.

 
A quarter of a million have done just that.  Hop aboard.

brookline deer!!

ORIGINAL: SonofZ3

Subsurface rights trump surface rights. A great deal of public hunting areas have mineral rights owned by a private firm. The owner of the mineral rights can drill there, public hunting area or not. It has NOTHING to do with the owner of the surafce rights.

Dannic Energy Corporation out of Indiana has several shallow medina wells on SGL 45. But the PGC has done a couple clear cuts as well since AR came in. Down in the creek bottom there is ton of black cherry just waiting to be cut.....


My guess is the PGC seeks out properties without mineral rights, b/c its cheaper for them to acquire, but idk for sure

ORIGINAL: grt0404

I FOR ONE AM FED UP WITH THE DEER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PA.THESE DMU IN MY EYES DON`T SEEM TO BE WORKING. I HUNT IN THE 2G EASTERN ELK CO. AND THE DEER POPULATION HAS NOT GOTTEN ANY BETTER, IF ANYTHING IT HAS GOT WORSE. YES THE GAME COMMISSION HAS CUT THE DOE PERMITS BUT DCNR HAS RAISED THE DMAP PERMITS. HOW DOES THAT WORK? YOU TY TO ELIMINATE SOME LICENSES TO REDUCE THE KILLON THE DOES BUT DCNR RAISES THE DMAP PERMITS, MAKES NO SENCE TO ME. ALL THE GAME COMMISSION AND DCNR ARE WORRIED ABOUT IS TAKING YOUR MONEY FOR THE REVINUE AND DON`T GIVE A DAM ABOUT THE DEER POPULATION. THEY WANT THE MONEY FROM TIMBER SALES AND THE GAS UNDER THE GROUND. HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE HAD YOUR HUNTING AREAS DISRUPTED BY THE GAS DRILLING? I THINK ITS TIME OR THE SPORTSMEN TO TAKE A STAND AND REFUSE TO BUY A HUNTING LICENSE. WHEN THE GAME COMMISSION DOSEN`T HAVE THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF REVINUE BECAUSE OF THIS MAYBE THEY WILL START TO LISTEN TO US. I`VE HUNTED THE SAME AREA FOR 35 YEARS AND HAVE NEVER SEEN THE POPULATION OF DEER THIS BAD, I SAW 3 DOE THE FIRST DAY AT 7AM AND HAVEN`T SEENANOTHER DEER SINCE. AND WHATS UP WITH THIER STUDY NOT LETTING THE HOLDERS OF DOE PERMITS SHOOT A DOE BUT IF YOU HAVE A DMAP PERMIT YOU CAN . WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP. I HELD OFF BUYING A HUNTING LICENSE UNTIL 3 WEEKS BEFORE DEER SEASON BECAUSE OF THESE FEELINGS I HAVE ONLY BUYING A LICENSE PRIMARLLY TO HUNT S****LS. NEXT YEAR I WON`T BE BUYING A LICENSE LETS HEAR THE VIEWS OF MY FELLOW SPORTSMEN FOR OR AGAINST. THANKS FOR LOOKING

 
First of all I too have been spending time working in unit 2G. There are so few hunters in my patrol areas of unit 2G the deer don’t even know they are being hunted. I put on 175 miles yesterday, the first day hunters could shot an antlerless deer outside of a DMAP unit when properly permitted, and I saw darn few hunters, no antlerless deer killed or even though there was snow on the ground not even one drag mark in the snow. I saw miles and miles of area with not one set of man tracks on it. It has been like that for years, so just who is killing all those deer that you think are being over harvested.
 
You are correct that the number of antlerless license allocated for unit 2G was cut. It was cut from 6.32 license to 3.70 antlerless license per square mile. That compares to 9.19 licenses per square in unit 2F, the second lowest allocation per square mile, and 5C with 56.21 and 2B with 49.90 licenses per square mile.
 
You are incorrect about DCNR increasing the number of DMAP permits. The number of DMAP this year is the same as last year. They reduced the antlerless allocation to account for the number of DMAP permits issued last year so the antlerless harvest this year will most certainly be much lower than last year’s already dismally low antlerless harvest of only 1.02 antlerless deer harvested per square mile in unit 2G.
 
Last year the hunters in unit 2G only harvested 8 out of each 100 collared does that were being tracked and monitored throughout the season. How could anyone think it is hunters depressing the deer populations when that is all the more does they are harvesting?
 
The Game Commission does not own the mineral rights under most of the game lands so there is nothing they can do to stop or even slow down the gas drilling.
 
When enough hunters quit supporting wildlife management, with their hunting license dollars, and wildlife management can’t be adequately funded then the funding will simply come from other sources, whether it is general tax dollars or other funding avenues. Wildlife management is important to ALL members of the public, not just hunters, so when the day comes hunters fail to provide the funding someone else will.
 
R.S. Bodenhorn

ORIGINAL: Esox_Hunter

By purchasing your license you are telling the PGC that you agree enough with their policies to support them.

 
I buy a license because it is a required tax to go hunting.  That's it. 

You can slice it any way you like, but the fact remains that purchasing a license is supporting the PGC. That is about the only means you, as an individual has to cast your vote, whether you like it or not.

Let's hear it.

"You can slice it any way you like, but the fact remains that purchasing a license is supporting the PGC. That is about the only means you, as an individual has to cast your vote, whether you like it or not."

100% untrue. The way to "cast your vote" is to do it the very way the system was put in place to do it. Legislators are appointed with oversight. Contact your elected LEGISLATORS and demand that something be done. It took legislative action to put the agency into place in the first place and for its continued existence. Thats also what it takes for "change".

Contact the appropriate legislators, Monitor their response and encourage others to do the same. Many have been doing that, and is one of the main reasons our situation isnt far worse than it already is. The political pressure applied does have an effect. It may not get us all exactly what we want when we want it, but it is the only route to take in dealing with pgc mismanagement period. It the only reason theyve made the meager cuts that they have recently period.

If certain legislators clearly remain defiant and support the enviro agenda, then be vocal about them, vote accordingly and ask that others do the same and get the joker out of office.

Pgc/enviromentalists can testify to the effectiveness after having lost one of their environmental/antideer champions, a high ranking rung in their support system who sat on the legislative budget & finance committe and game & fisheries... whom theyve leaned on time and again to get things done towards their agenda... Rep Levdansky. Taken out by the voting sportsmen of the district. After having served decades and thought to be one of the entrenched "untouchable" good ol' boys. Right about now though, im guessin' he's sorry to have ever messed with the sportsmen of this state.

When enough hunters quit supporting wildlife management, with their hunting license dollars, and wildlife management can’t be adequately funded then the funding will simply come from other sources,

And that's exactly what the Audubon and other enviromental groups were pushing to have happen since the 90's. The PGC, with the Audubons pressure and help knowingly put practices in place to discourage hunters causing them to drop out so that funding would have to be assumed by non hunters or anti hunters. The issue is control of the state and national forests and state game lands. The result so far is the loss of approx a quarter million deer hunters. To blame hunters for reacting to herd reduction as was predicted in the beginning is merely another attempt to deflect putting the blame where it belongs. The PGC made the rules, the PGC allowed for the overkill, and the PGC is responsible for the lack of funding. The only possible way to reverse it at this point is through the politicans.

"The Game Commission does not own the mineral rights under most of the game lands so there is nothing they can do to stop or even slow down the gas drilling."

Thats completely and totally false and you know it, or SHOULD know it if you intend to enlighten the public about pgc affairs. According to Carl Roe, your Executive director, Pgc owns OVER HALF of the mineral rights in the Marcellus zone. And according to former commissioner Palone, they own rights on "around 500,000" acres of the total 961,000 that fall in the Marcellus zone which are the only lands effected by potential marcellus drilling....and yes, over half qualifies as "most". Thats alot of acres, and thats alot of cabbage that gonna come from it.

"When enough hunters quit supporting wildlife management, with their hunting license dollars, and wildlife management can’t be adequately funded then the funding will simply come from other sources, whether it is general tax dollars or other funding avenues."

Thats exactly what the extremists are banking on, and thats definately part of the environmentalist derived "plan". But with a responsible and trustworthy agency in place (something we do not have currently), there is no reason why, with one of the highest numbers of hunters in the nation and all the resources that provided funding on our gamelands... There is no reason why the agency couldnt remain "independent", and hunter funded long into the foreseeable future with no problems. Unfortunately that doesnt mesh very well with those with obtuse goals that would like to see hunter voice taken out of the equation.

Wayne: So since the PGC owns the mineral rights on half their land and you see drilling on some areas of PGC land that automatically means that its the half of land that the pgc owns the rights to and are selling for profit?

Seems to me that I had said this all along . I was accused of bashing the gameless commission and being a hater. Wake up guys. The PGC is money hungry and will stop at nothing. Good post !

All that report says is that it is POSSIBLE for OGM to be an increased source of funding, into the billions in the long run. Not that it is, or that it will be.

i also hunt in 2G and did not see many deer, but then again i did not see many huntes.  without hunters to push the deer. in the big woods, you do not see many deer.  the week before, during bear season, my BIL hunted the same area and saw 30 deeer with 2 being big buck, 18"+ spread.  this has happened the past several yeaqrs. i see a few doe 1st day, the reason i think , is there are more bear hunters than deer hunters now a days.  i see the sign, the trails, droppings, rubs, scrapes but not deer.  so they are there but they do not move around much.  and i know hunters are not sooting them.  i'm not sure what the poaching situation is like but i bet there are a few being taken off-hours.  i come home to southern butler county and see 3-4 times as many hunters and 3-4 times as many deer and many more deer being killed.  a coincidence, i doubt it.

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