Area will be reopened to hunting released propagated birds.
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today voted to dissolve the Somerset Wild Pheasant Recovery Area (WPRA), one of the state’s four WPRAs.
The Somerset WPRA was created by the Game Commission in 2009. Like other WPRAs, it was selected because its habitat gave pheasants the greatest chance to establish wild populations.
The Somerset WPRA received 964 trapped-and-transferred wild pheasants over three years, but surveys showed that the Somerset WPRA’s population failed to take hold.
Habitat conditions, weather severity, or a combination of these factors, impeded the chances of achieving a sustainable pheasant population on the WPRA.
Because WPRAs generally are closed to pheasant hunting, and the release of propagated pheasants is prohibited within WPRAs, dissolving the Somerset WPRA benefits pheasant hunters.
With the Somerset WPRA dissolved, the area will be reopened to either-sex pheasant hunting and will be eligible for game-farm pheasant releases.
Courtesy PA Game Commission www.pgc.pa.gov