By Ken Maurer
It looks like there might finally be a chance of a change in the deer regulations.
There is a proposal afoot to add four more Wildlife Management Units to the ones that have no doe hunting during the first week of firearms season. Of the eight commissioners, David Schreffler and Gregory Isabella were the only ones to vote against the proposal.
Of course, I hear the usual rhetoric that this would be wrong, because it would be based on emotion (?) rather than sound science. I just have some difficulty with the current results of what is called sound science.
There is also a proposal to include bobcats in the general hunting license instead of a drawn tag; there would also be a dedicated three-week bobcat season.
The bobcat population has definitely expanded, which I find curious. The river was a mighty fine mess this past week. Winter walleye season is winding down, but we may still get some good fishing in when the river straightens out. Walleye season ends March 14. During some years, the last couple weeks of the season produces good fishing.
We shall see how this year turns out. According to the latest fisheries biologists’ reports (available on the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission website), the YOY (young of the year) walleye numbers are down on the North Branch of the Susquehanna. The 2009 catch-per-hour of YOY walleye was 20.89. The longterm average is 62.93.
I have not yet seen any reports on YOY walleye for the West Branch or the main stem. A lot of walleye anglers are watching this situation, since the PFBC stopped the yearly stocking of walleye fry in the Susquehanna in 2007.
I recently had a conversation with a landowner in Tioga County about the “frac” mining that is going on up there. That area is part of the Marcellus Shale natural gas mining operation.
In frac mining, they pump a water-and-sand mixture into the ground to fracture the shale to allow extraction of natural gas. The process takes a tremendous amount of water and produces a nasty, polluted water byproduct.
The mining companies have a lot of eyes on them and must follow stringent rules.
This landowner was greatly concerned about the effects on the environment. Taking care of the polluted byproduct and the effect of taking vast quantities of water out of the ecosystem are the main reasons for concern.
The thing that struck me about the whole situation was that the PFBC is trying to figure out what is going on with the river and the smallmouth bass, and in the distant headwaters the very thing they are concerned about is going on.
There is a tremendous amount of energy in the Marcellus Shale, energy that we need. But we do not need a replay of the mess that the coal companies made years ago that still haunts us today, in the form of acid-polluted streams.
-- Ken Maurer, Herndon, is a licensed fishing guide and a regular contributor to the Outdoors section. E-mail comments to kenrose@tds.
net
