PA Game Commission

Antlerless Deer Applications 2017 – 2018

July 6, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

Application Schedule

July 10: Residents

July 17: Nonresidents

Aug. 7: Unsold, 1st round

Aug. 21: Unsold, 2nd round

Aug. 28: Over-the-counter sales for WMUs 2B, 5C & 5D

Oct. 2: Over-the-counter sales for all other WMUs

Wildlife Management Units (WMUs)

On the application form, the hunter must enter at least one Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) preference where he or she desires to hunt. The hunter may select up to three WMU preferences on the form. If the first WMU is sold out, the county treasurer will issue the second, or if necessary, the third based on license availability. A guide to WMUs, including boundary maps is found in the 2017-18 Hunting & Trapping Digest.

County Treasurers

Hunters can apply by mailing applications to any county treasurer with the addresses provided in the Digest. The zipcodes for Bedford and Berks counties were listed incorrectly on some handouts. Be sure to use 15522-1713 and 19601-4318 respectively.

Official Envelope

All antlerless deer license applications must be mailed in the official pink envelope. You should have received official envelopes with your license purchase. If you did not receive these envelopes, please contact us at [email protected] or 717-787-4250.

Application Status

You can check to see if you were awarded an antlerless deer license by visiting the Game Commission’s website, clicking “Buy Your License”, then “Buy A License Online.” Select the first option, which includes checking application status.

Do Not Wait

Applications that are received before the dates listed above will be returned. Hunters are encouraged to apply as soon as permissible for the best chance of receiving the Wildlife Management Unit of choice. Last year, the antlerless deer license allocations in each WMU were exhausted. Some WMUs sell out quickly. Check the date that your preferred WMU sold out last year.

Availability

Check on the remaining availability of antlerless deer licenses throughout the application period by visiting this page.

Note that prior to the first round of antlerless deer license sales, qualified landowner antlerless deer license sales will be reflected in the number of available licenses for each unit.

2017 – 2018 Furtaker Licenses On Sale

July 5, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

Pennsylvania hunting and furtaker licenses are on sale!

Buy your license at any issuing agent or online.

Additional Opportunities

Apply for the Pennsylvania Elk Drawing and DMAP permits through the Outdoor Shop.

License Packet Information

In addition to a 2017-18 hunting/furtaker license buyers will receive:

– a “pocket-guide”
– harvest report cards
– antlerless license applications
– an antlerless license application schedule
– a list of County Treasurer addresses
– two pink antlerless deer application envelopes

The “pocket-guide” contains general hunting regulations, hunting hours, fluorescent orange requirements, a map of the Wildlife Management Units, and season dates and bag limits.

Full 2017-18 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest

License buyers who wish to view the full digest can do so online, or they can opt to purchase a printed digest for $6. Digests will be sold over-the-counter at Game Commission Region Offices and Harrisburg Headquarters. When purchased elsewhere, the digests will be mailed directly to license buyers.

NEW Pheasant Stamp

Pheasant permits are required for all adult and senior hunters, including senior lifetime license buyers, who pursue or harvest pheasants. Junior hunters do not need a pheasant permit to hunt or harvest pheasants. Each pheasant permit costs $26.90, and the permit is required in addition to a general hunting license.

Fiscal Responsibility

By no longer giving free digests to all license buyers, the Game Commission will save significantly on the cost of printing and mailing hundreds of thousands of digests.

By creating a pheasant permit, the Game Commission has established a mechanism to help fund the pheasant program – giving hunters a chance to help sustain the program rather than see it vanish.

Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans explained these decisions are motivated by the agency’s financial situation, which already has caused the Game Commission to eliminate programs and reduce personnel.

“These kinds of reductions in services are necessary as the Game Commission approaches nearly two decades without an increase in the cost of a general hunting or furtaker license,” Burhans said.

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

Hunting Licenses Go On Sale June 19th

July 5, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

06/08/2017

HUNTING LICENSES TO GO ON SALE JUNE 19

Pennsylvania hunters and trappers soon will be lining up to purchase their 2017-18 licenses, and they need to be aware of some important changes implemented since this time last year.

Hunting licenses for 2017-18 go on sale June 19. The licenses become valid July 1 and, after that date, all who hunt, trap or who want to apply for an antlerless deer license must have an up-to-date 2017-18 license to do so.

One noticeable change for 2017-18 license buyers is that the full regulations digest typically given out when licenses are purchased is not being provided for free this year.

Instead, all license buyers will receive a complimentary “pocket-guide” that contains general hunting regulations, hunting hours, fluorescent orange requirements, a map of the Wildlife Management Units, and season dates and bag limits.

License buyers who wish to view the full digest can do so online at the www.pgc.pa.gov, or they can opt to purchase a printed digest for $6. Digests will be sold over-the-counter at Game Commission Region Offices and Harrisburg Headquarters. When purchased elsewhere, the digests will be mailed directly to license buyers.

By no longer giving free digests to all license buyers, the Game Commission will save significantly on the cost of printing and mailing hundreds of thousands of digests.

Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans explained this decision is being motivated by the agency’s financial situation, which already has caused the Game Commission to eliminate programs and reduce personnel.

“These kinds of reductions in services are necessary as the Game Commission approaches nearly two decades without an increase in the cost of a general hunting or furtaker license,” Burhans said.

Unlike most state agencies, the Game Commission doesn’t get a share of tax money from the state’s general fund. Instead, funding comes primarily from the sale of licenses, the fees for which are set by the General Assembly.

A challenging fiscal climate also is behind another significant change in 2017-18 – the requirement for all adult and senior pheasant hunters to purchase a permit.

In recent decades, pheasant hunting in Pennsylvania has been possible only through the release of farm-raised pheasants, and the Game Commission’s pheasant propagation program annually has raised and released about 200,000 pheasants or more for hunting statewide. While the program is a popular one, it doesn’t come cheap, costing about $4.7 million annually in recent years.

Steps have been taken to curtail the cost of the program. The Game Commission last year closed two of its four pheasant farms, and the statewide pheasant allocation for 2017-18 has been reduced to 170,000.

By creating a pheasant permit, the Game Commission has established a mechanism to help fund the pheasant program – giving hunters a chance to help sustain the program rather than see it vanish.

General hunting licenses and furtaker licenses each continue to cost $20.90 for Pennsylvania residents and $101.90 for nonresidents.

Resident senior hunters and furtakers, ages 65 and older, can purchase one-year licenses for $13.90, or lifetime licenses for $51.90. For $101.90, resident seniors can purchase lifetime combination licenses that afford them hunting and furtaking privileges. Like other hunters and trappers, seniors still need to purchase archery licenses before participating in the archery deer season, bear licenses to pursue bruins, and permits to harvest pheasants, bobcats, fishers or river otters.

A complete list of licensing requirements can be found at www.pgc.pa.gov.

Burhans thanked hunters and trappers for their enduring support of Pennsylvania wildlife through their annual license purchases.

“At any price, the opportunity to spend days afield in Penn’s Woods, carrying on our hunting and trapping heritage, is invaluable,” Burhans said. “Our pheasant hunters are a great example of that. When we first proposed creation of a pheasant permit, many of them stepped up to say they’d gladly pay $50 or a $100 for their permits that would keep the propagation program going and sustain the opportunity to hunt pheasants in Pennsylvania.

“For more than a century, hunters and trappers have funded the conservation of all the Commonwealth’s wildlife, for all Pennsylvanians, and we owe them a debt of gratitude,” Burhans said. “Their contribution not only has produced some of the best deer, bear and turkey hunting in the nation, it’s helped to create and maintain healthy habitat and preserve a diversity of wildlife that can be enjoyed by all statewide.”

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

Game Commission Announces Updated CWD Response

July 5, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

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

Mount From Massive, Illegally Killed Elk Finds New Home

July 5, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

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

Agencies Partner For Troubled Game Birds

July 5, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

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

SPRINGTIME ALERT – DO NOT DISTURB YOUNG WILDLIFE

June 1, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

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

ADDITIONAL CWD CASES DETECTED IN PENNSYLVANIA WILD DEER

June 1, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

05/15/2017

The Pennsylvania Game Commission tested 5,707 deer and 110 elk for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) during 2016.

Twenty-five wild deer tested positive for CWD. All of the wild CWD-positive deer were in or near Disease Management Area 2 (DMA 2), the only area of the state where CWD has been detected in the wild. These 25 deer more than doubled the number of CWD-positive deer detected in DMA 2 from 2012 to 2015.

Through 2016, 47 wild deer have tested positive for CWD in DMA 2.

Each year, the Game Commission collects CWD samples from hunter-harvested animals, road-kills, escaped captive cervids, and any cervid showing signs of CWD.

Since 2002, the Game Commission has tested over 61,000 deer for CWD. Although samples are collected from across the state, efforts were increased within the three Disease Management Areas (DMAs), which are areas in the state where CWD has been identified in wild and/or captive deer. These include: DMA 1 in parts of Adams and York counties in which CWD was identified on a captive deer farm in 2012; DMA 2 in parts of Bedford, Blair, Somerset, Fulton, Cambria, and Huntingdon counties where CWD has been identified in multiple wild deer since 2012 and recently on three captive deer facilities; and DMA 3 in Jefferson and Clearfield counties where CWD was detected on two captive deer facilities in 2014.

The 25 new CWD-positive wild deer were part of 1,652 deer samples collected within DMA 2 during 2016. CWD-positive deer included 13 road-killed deer, 10 hunter-harvested deer, and two deer showing signs consistent with CWD. Read the full CWD update.

Courtesy of PA Game Commission

SPRING GOBBLER SEASON HOLDS PLENTY OF POTENTIAL

May 19, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

Excitement is starting to build for the start of spring-gobbler seasons.

Properly licensed junior hunters and mentored youth can head afield Saturday, April 22 to participate in Pennsylvania’s annual youth spring turkey hunt. A week later, on April 29, all hunters can head into Penn’s Woods in pursuit of spring gobblers.

There’s good reason for the increasing interest among hunters, said Mary Jo Casalena, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s wild turkey biologist.

A light turkey harvest last fall and a mild winter have set the stage for what could be a fast-starting spring gobbler season.

“Fall mast last year was spotty and turkeys responded by moving to those food sources, which in some cases meant they moved away from areas frequented by hunters,” Casalena said. “The fall turkey harvest dropped as a consequence. And while that might have been bad news for fall turkey hunters, it’s likely good news for spring turkey hunters because unfilled fall turkey tags typically lead to increased availability in the spring.

“Add to that the fact that mild winters, like the one we’re coming off, are easier on turkeys and help prepare them for spring breeding,” Casalena said. “That should lead to a healthier turkey population and might put gobblers on a timeline to be exceptionally fired up when the season begins.”

“So hunters who want to ensure their best opportunity to hunt as many days of the season as they can need to buy the license soon,” Casalena said. “There’s promise for a great season.”

Youth Hunt

All participants in the youth hunt must be accompanied by adults as required by law. A complete list of regulations applying to mentored youth and junior hunters can be found in the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, which is issued at the time hunting licenses are purchased and is also available online at www.pgc.pa.gov.

Hunting Hours

Hunting hours during the youth hunt end at noon. Junior hunters and mentored youth may also participate in the statewide spring gobbler season. Hunting hours begin one-half hour before sunrise and end at noon for the first two weeks of the statewide season (April 29 through May 13). Hunters are asked to be out of the woods by 1 p.m. when hunting hours end at noon. This is to minimize disturbance of nesting hens. From May 15 through May 31, hunting hours are from one-half hour before sunrise until one-half hour after sunset. The all-day season allows more opportunity at the point in the season when hunting pressure is lower and nesting hens are less likely to abandon nests.

Licensing and other regulations

During the spring gobbler season, hunters may use manually operated or semi-automatic shotguns limited to a three-shell capacity in the chamber and magazine combined. Muzzleloading shotguns, crossbows and long, recurve and compound bows also are permitted. For a complete list of regulations, consult Page 42 of the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest.

Reporting harvests

Successful turkey hunters must immediately and properly tag the bird before moving the bird from the harvest site, and are required by law to report the harvest to the Game Commission. For most hunters, harvests must be reported within 10 days. Mentored youth hunters must report harvests within five days. Reporting harvests enables the Game Commission to more accurately estimate harvest and population totals, and is important to effective management.

There are three ways harvests can be reported. Hunters can visit wwwpgc.pa.gov., click the blue “Report a Harvest” button along the right side of the home page, then fill out a form and submit. Alternately, hunters can fill out and mail in the tear-out harvest report cards that are inserted into the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, or report the harvest by phone at 1-855-PAHUNT1 (1-855-724-8681). In all cases, it is helpful to have your license with you, as well as the tag you used in the field after harvesting the bird.

“Even though the Game Commission is not currently conducting any large-scale turkey research, there are still leg-banded turkeys remaining throughout the state from recently completed projects,” Casalena said. “If you are lucky enough to harvest a leg-banded turkey please call the toll-free number on the band and we will provide details of when and where the bird was tagged.”

Harvest photo contest

A beautiful gobbler might not be the only prize a successful turkey hunter brings home this spring. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is sponsoring its inaugural Turkey Harvest Photo Contest, and hunters submitting the photos of themselves with their 2017 Pennsylvania gobblers are eligible to win one of two personalized, engraved box calls.

Entries will be narrowed to a field of finalists in each the adult hunter and youth hunter category, with one winner in each category then selected by voters on the Game Commission’s Facebook page. But you have to enter to win. Hunters should be sure to submit photos of their 2017 Pennsylvania harvests by email to [email protected]. Submissions should include the first and last name of anyone in the photo, the hunter’s hometown and the county the turkey was harvested. The contest will run from youth season April 22 through Monday, June 5, with the winners selected shortly thereafter.

Courtesy PA Game News Release #119-17

PA Board Of Game Commissioners Public Working Group Meeting 5/22/17

May 19, 2017 by BCSCL Staff

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.