By JOE GORDEN
HARRISBURG — Hunters unhappy with the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s deer-reduction efforts – including some of the commissioners themselves – went away from the board’s Wednesday meeting disappointed.
The commissioners approved a package of seasons and bag limits for the coming year with no changes to deer seasons, then voted for the antlerless license allocations recommended by staff biologists, adding thousands more doe tags across the state next year.
Commission President Thomas Boop of Northumberland County was among those dismayed. He noted after the meeting that the state Legislature was increasingly critical of deer-management policies and had demanded changes before it would consider a license fee increase badly needed by the agency.
“I wonder if it is wise to approve a package that increases the allocations over last year,” he said.
The commissioners approved allocations of 49,000 antlerless licenses for Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 2C, which contains all of Somerset and part of Cambria counties. They also agreed on 21,000 doe licenses for WMU 2E and 40,000 for WMU 4D, each of which includes a portion of Cambria County.
None of those allocations was changed from last year. The number of licenses increased in three WMU’s – including 2G, where it rose 37 percent – and fell in two – including 4B, which will see 8,000 fewer tags next year.
Boop recommended that the allocation in WMU 4E, his home district, be cut from the 38,000 recommended by the deer management unit to 30,000, which he described as “a modest reduction.”
David Schreffler of Everett provided a second to the motion, which was defeated by a 4-2 vote.
Boop said that he wanted to make a token cutback in an effort to placate some of the game commission’s critics, but those who voted against the amendment stood behind biology.
“If we’re going to mix political and social issues with science, when do we mix so much in that we lose the science?” asked Dan Hill of Erie.
Schreffler, whose region includes Cambria and Somerset counties, took a different approach in his effort to reduce the antlerless harvest. He tried to amend the concurrent two-week buck/doe season in WMUs 2C, 2G, 3C and 4E to a bucks-only season for one week, followed by a weeklong combination buck/doe season.
The motion, seconded by Boop, was voted down 4-2.
“I see no merit, at this point in time, in the amendment,” said Russ Schleiden of Centre County.
Roxane Palone of Greene County said she was concerned about a shift in hunting pressure.
“I’m afraid, if we just change some units, some people will come just to harvest bucks during that season and we may find ourselves back in a situation where we are not harvesting enough does,” she said.
Boop also tried to introduce an amendment to eliminate the October antlerless deer season, but his motion died without a second.
