The Pennsylvania Game Commission recently held its Board of Commissioners meeting, and made some big changes, especially in the deer and bear seasons for 2010-11.
First off, the commission added four Wildlife Management Units -- 2C, 2E,4D and 4E -- to the other WMUs that have a split deer season, meaning that the first five days are antlered deer only and the last seven, starting on the first Saturday, are antlered and antlerless. Our local area is included in the region which will now have a split season. I think this action will make a lot of hunters happy. Most of the disgruntled hunters I know complain about the two-week concurrent season more than any single aspect of the game commission's deer management program. Many mention that they'd like to see us go back to a two-week antlered season followed by two or three days of antlerless hunting, the way it was for years here in Pennsylvania.
I, personally, will wait until the antlerless allocations are announced before I start believing that our deer herd may start to rebound in some of these areas. I believe that the number of antlerless licenses we issue has a bit more to do with how many deer we kill than does season length. I'd also be happier if the first Saturday wasn't included in the concurrent portion of the season. I guess for those who feel our deer herd has been reduced too far, anything is better than nothing, but those who favor increasing our deer herd should also be hoping for fewer antlerless allocations.
Archery hunters will get five days to chase bruins this year with that season running Nov. 15-19. This year the firearms bear season will begin on a Saturday, the 20th, and continue that following Monday and Tuesday. That change will give some people who can only hunt on Saturdays a chance at a Pennsylvania bruin. Apparently the commission feels our bear population can stand the extra pressure.
The commissioners also added a youth rabbit season to coincide with the youth pheasant season, continued the Wild Pheasant Recovery program for another year, made some changes in the fall turkey season lengths, expanded elk hunting opportunities and made some changes in the Deer Management Assistance Program. All the changes will be up for a final vote at the commission's spring meeting in April.
As a die-hard bird hunter, the one proposed change that caught my eye was a proposal to close the bobwhite quail season in Pennsylvania. Myself and a couple of my buddies have often questioned why we had a quail season in Pennsylvania. In my opinion we haven't had a huntable population of wild quail in Pennsylvania in my adult lifetime. Hunting preserves will still be able to release quail and individuals will also be able to hunt them on public and private land by permit. Bobwhites are in trouble throughout the eastern United States, including the southeast where they once thrived, therefore I don't hold out much hope for their restoration chances here in the Keystone State. They've become the most studied bird that flies, but no one has come up with a definitive answer as to why they've declined so much in such a short time. Could be habitat, farming practices, predators, weather, or, more likely, a combination of those factors. They're great little birds though and I'd love to be able to hear their evening calls here in Pennsylvania. Wishful thinking I'm afraid, but one can always hope.
n E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.
