Good afternoon, President Riley, Commissioners, Executive Director Roe, and staff. My name is Melody Zullinger, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc. (PFSC).
I appreciate the opportunity to testify here today.
As you know, we
have several very important issues facing us in 2006. With hunter recruitment and retention being
one of those top issues, we are very excited about the passage of HB 1690 that
will allow for the implementation of a mentored youth hunting program. We look forward to continuing to work closely
with the agency to prepare the regulations to move this program forward. We can all be proud that
Once again, there’s been much media attention paid to deer management, and all ears, including those of non-hunters, are watching and listening for the outcome of these meetings. Many are wondering if you will “do the right thing” or “cave to special interests.” Of course, “doing the right thing” has different meaning for different folks. We hope you will always do what’s right for the long-term viability of our wildlife resources.
Like everyone, we are hearing the complaints and concerns expressed, particularly in certain areas, about lower deer numbers; deer, both buck and doe, being harder to locate; and being seen in fewer numbers than years past. We are also hearing reports of more plentiful bucks, bigger racked bucks and heavier, healthier deer in some of those same areas. Weather conditions were poor for the start of the rifle season, but did improve as the season progressed. I myself, waited until the weather improved, and enjoyed hunting the last Friday and Saturday in the new snow, seeing lots of tracks and several deer.
By and far, the majority of our members do believe your initiative for herd reduction is working; in some areas, they believe it is working better than anyone could have imagined, and some think it has worked too well. There are also reports of regeneration in areas that have not seen it in years because of over-browsing. This is certainly a tribute to sportsmen and their ability to respond to your management objectives. Unfortunately, as you well know, there are those that believe your management objectives are not in their best interests! We continue to believe there certainly are “cold” spots as well as “hot” spots, and that the agency needs to further tweak its deer management program to deal with these problem pockets within existing wildlife management units.
We understand the current deer management program is a five-year program. Similarly, I believe you recognize that some hunters are becoming impatient and frustrated as they wait for the completion of the initial five years of this management strategy. At this point, the majority of our membership, although feeling some of the same frustrations, still understands the objectives of the plan, and realizes that we are too far along to entirely abandon the program and begin changing the basic format of the initial five year phase. We believe the major tool to tweaking the existing program is through the allocation and usage of antlerless licenses within the WMU’s and we strongly encourage you to direct staff to give the utmost priority to fine tune the existing deer management program through that allocation process, including DMAP.
This past year’s antlerless allocation was reduced considerably, and by as much as 40% in certain areas, such as the WMU 2G. Again, we ask for continued fine-tuning and tweaking of the program through antlerless allocations to address the “hot” and “cold” spots. Even if that means an additional 40% reduction for next year. We also ask for support of additional options and opportunities for those areas still seeing too many deer. We understand that access, or the lack thereof, is usually a major contributing factor, but we strongly recommend options that keep hunters a part of the solution.
We all understand that healthy wildlife populations depend on healthy habitat. We know that without the one, we will never have the other. And we do know that too many deer will cause adverse effects on the habitat, but they are not the only influencing factor. Unfortunately, they are the easiest influencing factor for the PGC to manipulate. We are however very encouraged to hear that there are discussions taking place between the PGC and the DCNR on additional habitat improvement projects, such as food plots and possibly controlled burning. We realize there are financial and liability problems associated with some of these other options, but do feel they need be looked into and addressed.
The majority of our membership still supports the antler restrictions in general. Our members from those areas with a four-point restriction would like you to consider making it three points everywhere for statewide uniformity. PFSC supported the antler restrictions for the primary reasons of helping to protect the younger bucks, and allow for a better buck to doe ratio. Some feel that we have accomplished that and a few are questioning the science behind continuing the restrictions.
While there was never an official vote taken by our delegates, we have been hearing general support for a 2-day archery bear season, as long as the science supports it. Some have asked that one of those days be on a Saturday so there would be more opportunity for participation.
The PFSC, along with other organizations, will continue to promote the need for an increase in hunting/trapping license fees. It is unfortunate that some, legislators as well as sportsmen, claim that no increase should be implemented until the perceived “deer problem” is fixed and that license fees should be based on the amount of available game. Too bad these same individuals didn’t speak up during the record deer harvest years – we would have pushed for a license increase then. And it is truly unfortunate that an exceptional bear management program and a record bear harvest have somehow become overlooked, and apparently don’t count towards your long record of successful programs.
Even though there are those in the legislature that wish to hold the license increase hostage to your decision, we still ask that you make decisions that are in the best interest of the resource, damn the license increase. We will learn to tolerate continuing cuts in programs if that’s what it takes to protect the resource – the wildlife resource and its habitat, and we hope you feel similarly.
Finally, we’d like to compliment you on your recent search and selection for an Executive Director. As a Board, you appear to have conducted the search in a professional manner, which went rather smoothly. PFSC, and many others, are pleased with your selection. Executive Director Roe – welcome aboard – and we look forward to working with you.
Commissioners, your efforts towards sound management of our wildlife and resources are greatly appreciated and we encourage you to continue to base your management decisions on the science and data; continuing to strive to improve the collection of that data, and always keeping in mind “what is best for all our resources.”
As I said earlier, we have some significant challenges facing us this year, and although we may sometimes disagree on some of these issues, we can agree to disagree, but PFSC will continue to work with you for the betterment of the resource and for the sportsmen and women of this great state.
Thank you.