06/14/2017

GAME COMMISSION ANNOUNCES UPDATED CWD RESPONSE

The Pennsylvania Game Commission today announced regulation changes to address the increasing threat that chronic wasting disease (CWD) presents to the state’s deer and elk.

Disease Management Area 2 will be expanded significantly eastward, increasing its area from 2,846 square miles to 4,095 square miles. Within DMA 2, two new Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) units have been created to focus hunter effort in areas where multiple CWD-positive deer have been found. And at the same time, the Game Commission has dissolved DMA 1 in York and Adams counties.

DMA 2 in southcentral Pennsylvania is the only area of the state where CWD, which always is fatal to deer and elk, has been detected in free-ranging deer.

The expansion of DMA 2 is in response to CWD expanding within the DMA, and new detections of CWD-positive deer at captive facilities.

Twenty-five free-ranging deer tested positive for CWD in 2016. From 2012 to 2015, a total of 22 free-ranging CWD-positive deer were detected in DMA 2.

Since this time last year, the disease also has been detected on three additional captive deer facilities, one each in Bedford, Franklin and Fulton counties. The Bedford and Fulton facilities are within the previous DMA 2 boundary, but the Franklin County facility is 25 miles east of the previous DMA 2 boundary.

In recent years, the Game Commission has allocated and issued permits that could be used to hunt antlerless deer anywhere within Disease Management Area 2.

Those permits won’t be issued this year, but hunters can obtain up to two permits each to take antlerless deer on the two newly created DMAP units within DMA 2.

Although the function will be similar, Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said the shift to using DMAP permits will target areas where multiple CWD-positive deer have been found.

Like the other changes being made, it is aimed at managing the disease in the most effective and efficient way possible.

“The fight against CWD isn’t an easy one, but with cooperation from hunters, landowners, partner agencies and Pennsylvania residents, we hope to move forward with efforts to minimize the impacts of this serious disease,” Burhans said.

The full news release contains more updated CWD response information under these sections:
 -DMA 2 Expands
-DMAP as a CWD Control
-DMA 1 Dissolved

Information Courtesy of Email Updates from Pennsylvania Game Commission www.pgc.pa.gov

05/23/2017

MOUNT FROM MASSIVE, ILLEGALLY KILLED ELK FINDS NEW HOME

After touring the country as part of a traveling display, the mount made from a giant, illegally killed Pennsylvania bull elk has come home to Clearfield County.

Representatives from the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation at a recent ceremony in Clearfield, Pa. presented the mount of the now-famous “Historic Pennsylvania Poaching Bull” to Clearfield County District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr., who prosecuted the poachers responsible for the unlawful killing.

Because of the historic significance of the elk, Shaw made arrangements for the trophy to be on permanent display at the Clearfield County Historical Society, where it is available for public viewing.

Killed unlawfully in a 2014 poaching spree near Karthaus, Pa., the bull is one of the largest on record in Pennsylvania. Its official Boone & Crockett measurements of 432 7/8 inches would rank as Pennsylvania’s third-largest bull elk ever, had it been lawfully harvested.

The mount is so big, in fact, the historical society had to do some remodeling before putting the bull on display, said the organization’s vice president Susan Williams.

“We completely remodeled a room to house it, and we have a number of artifacts of historic importance on display alongside it,” Williams said.

The 10- by 9-point bull was mounted courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which last year included the mount in its traveling Great Elk Tour display, which made 24 stops in 20 states. In Pennsylvania, the tour stopped at the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg in February 2016, and in Benezette, Elk County, at the height of the September bugling season.

Information Courtesy of Email Updates from Pennsylvania Game Commission www.pgc.pa.gov

05/24/2017

AGENCIES PARTNER FOR TROUBLED GAME BIRDS

A state-agency partnership is creating more habitat for two troubled game birds and other wildlife species that rely on young forest.

Since 2011, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources have teamed to restore thousands of acres of idle, difficult-to-manage habitat for ruffed grouse and woodcock on state forests.

The partnership, spearheaded by DCNR’s Emily Just, an ecologist with the Bureau of Forestry, and Lisa Williams, a Game Commission game birds biologist, has been helping state forests and parks personnel write plans to remedy what ails now marginal habitats that once supported substantial populations of the ol’ ruff and timberdoodles. Both depend on young forests, which have been declining in Pennsylvania for some time. Grouse covet young upland forest – preferably with some adjacent stands of more mature trees; woodcock need young forest and shrubby thickets in soggy lowlands that offers their favorite food, worms.

“Pennsylvania is currently at a 50-year-low for this critical habitat,” Williams explained. “The decline of young forest has been dramatic.”

Pennsylvania lost about 30 percent of its young forest between 1980 and 2005, and declines continue, Williams said. Just 5 percent of Pennsylvania forests are young – up to 19 years old, according to 2014 forest inventory data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.

Reverting farm fields and bottomland, the loss of young forestland to tree maturation and land-use changes have hurt these popular native game birds. Sinking with their populations are somewhat obscure songbirds, like golden-winged and prairie warblers, the yellow-breasted chat and brown thrasher, as well as the more recognizable whip-poor-wills, box turtles and snowshoe hares.

Although grouse mortality also is tied to West Nile virus, habitat is the key to keeping the state bird abundant in Penn’s Woods. It’s a conclusion resource managers back.

Learn more about the new interagency habitat prescription service.

Information Courtesy of Email Updates from Pennsylvania Game Commission www.pgc.pa.gov

05/19/2017

Whether in their backyards or high on a mountain, it’s almost certain Pennsylvanians will encounter young wildlife this time of year.

While some young animals might appear to be abandoned, usually they are not. It’s likely their mothers are watching over them from somewhere nearby.

So when encountering young deer, birds, raccoons or other young wildlife, the best thing people can do is leave the animals alone.

“Most people want to do what they can to help wildlife, and when they see a young animal that appears to be abandoned, they want to intervene,” said Wayne Laroche, the Game Commission wildlife management director. “What they don’t realize is that, in all likelihood, they’re doing more harm than good.

“Those young animals probably aren’t abandoned at all, meaning that anyone stepping in to try to help not only is taking that youngster away from its mother, but also destroying its chances to grow up as it was intended,” he said.

Adult animals often leave their young while they forage for food, but they don’t go far and they do return. Wildlife also often relies on a natural defensive tactic called the “hider strategy,” where young animals will remain motionless and “hide” in surrounding cover while adults draw the attention of potential predators or other intruders away from their young.

Deer employ this strategy, and deer fawns sometimes are assumed to be abandoned when, in fact, their mothers are nearby.

The Game Commission urges Pennsylvanians to resist the urge to interfere with young wildlife or remove any wild animal from its natural setting. Read the rest of the Springtime Alert.

Courtesy of PA Game Commission

The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners has scheduled a public, working group meeting to be held on Monday, May 22 at the Game Commission’s headquarters in Harrisburg.

The meeting is slated to begin at 8 a.m.

Working group meetings allow for an exchange between the Board of Game Commissioners and Game Commission staff ahead of the regular quarterly meetings. While working group meetings are open to the public, public comments are not accepted.

The Game Commission’s headquarters is at 2001 Elmerton Ave., just off the Progress Avenue exit of Interstate 81.

While most meetings of the Board of Game Commissioners are held in the auditorium at the Game Commission’s headquarters, the May 22 meeting will be held in the classroom of the Ross Leffler School of Conservation at the headquarters building. The auditorium is being used for a training seminar that day.

Because live-streaming is unavailable from the classroom, the May 22 meeting will not be live-streamed. The meeting will be recorded, however, with the video uploaded to the Game Commission’s YouTube channel at some point following the meeting.

The Board of Game Commissioners’ next quarterly meeting is scheduled to be held June 26 and 27 at the Harrisburg headquarters. The board will hear public comments, limited to five minutes per speaker, at the start of the June 26 meeting.

Game Commission recently promoted two employees to bureau director positions.

Deana Vance has been selected as director of the agency’s Bureau of Automated Technology Services, and Randy L. Shoup has been selected as director of the agency’s Bureau of Wildlife Protection.

Vance replaces Paul Mahon, who retired in December after more than 36 years with the agency, and Shoup replaces Tom Grohol, who recently was promoted to Deputy Executive Director of Administration.

Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said Vance and Shoup benefit from years of experience working within the agency and their respective bureaus, and were able to step into their new positions without breaking stride.

Learn more about the new directors in the full news release.

Courtesy of PA Game Commission 4/27/17