PFSC Testimony

HOUSE GAME & FISHERIES COMMITTEE HEARING

House Bill 904

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Chairman Smith, Chairman Staback, members of the Committee. Good morning.

My name is Melody Zullinger and I am the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (PFSC). We currently represent approximately 97,000 sportsmen and women, with 333 affiliated clubs in 48 counties. The PA Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation and the PA Trappers Association are also statewide affiliates of the PFSC, but we do not pretend to be representing their organization’s views with this testimony.

As many of you know, our organization has debated the merits of Sunday hunting quite frequently over the past few years. The topic always brings about heated debate from those on both sides of the issue, and until recently, the pendulum had always tilted substantially towards the non supportive side, and we’ve typically been opposed to “blanketly” allowing Sunday hunting for all species, all the time. There have been occasions where the PFSC has supported limited Sunday hunting opportunities for certain species –most recently, woodchucks. We still have some clubs and counties that are adamantly opposed to any expansion, some clubs and counties that are open to some expansion, and some clubs and counties that are split on the issue. So although the pendulum is not as lopsided as it once was on the Sunday hunting issue, it is still not on the side of supporting broad based expansion.

House Bill 904 though is not just about Sunday hunting. It is about expanding the role and responsibilities of the PA Game Commission’s (PGC) Board of Commissioners.

The PFSC has always supported the commissioner concept of management of our resource agencies, and I believe we would support increasing that independent status. However, many question the true “independence” of the existing system, which I often refer to as being about as independent as a 2 year old. And recent meetings and comments by legislators have reiterated our concern about the so-called independency of the agency.

At the April 14 meeting of this Committee concerning deer management, several of you indicated that you would not address a much needed license increase until the agency’s dependence upon revenue generated from antlerless license revenues was addressed and the current “deer problems” were fixed. Currently, that perceived revenue dependence can only be resolved by you – the members of the PA General Assembly – and “fixing” the deer problems is a wildlife management issue and should be decided using sound scientific management, not because of the pressure of being held hostage by the General Assembly in order to get a much needed license increase.

So our dilemma is, “should we now support legislation that will add one more highly controversial “management” issue to the regulating authority of the commission that could be held against them should they not set regulations that please all the members of the General Assembly?

If we are to support this concept, then perhaps House Bill 904 should be amended to also allow the Board of Commissioners to determine other issues such as establishing license fees, as well as license exemptions; and establishing penalty amounts for violations of the existing game laws.

But House Bill 904 does not adequately address the larger issue of commissioner responsibilities, it simply addresses one item – Sunday hunting. So that is what we must decide to support or not.

Others here today will testify on the merits of Sunday hunting. I will not argue against those merits because I believe many of them are justifiable. I will just simply state that the issue is a very personal issue to everyone, regardless which side you are on.

At the current time, a majority of the PFSC’s membership still appears to be opposed to any broad based expansion of Sunday hunting, so we can not support House Bill 904 at this time.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to testify.