Given the rush and the thrill of Fourth of July weekend and the end of June, you might have missed some of the changes made to Pennsylvania hunting in the last few days, but changes have indeed been made and more tweaks are expected in the following weeks.
One change involves smaller game and children hunting, if properly supervised of course. Bob Frye of Triblive.com writes, “One proposal creates mentored youth cottontail rabbit and mourning dove hunting seasons. If given final approval in September, when the board next meets, children younger than 12 would be allowed to hunt those species when accompanied by an adult starting in 2016.”
This is a good move if passed, as it will allow children to get involved in small game hunting. The ultimate goal is to turn them into hunters for life, which will assist in making sure that hunting never leaves the state of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s hunting is heavily depending on revenues pulled from hunting and without it, the state would surely be crippled. Therefore, in order for the state to really survive, we must be able to spread the love of hunting to children. It’s all about spreading the excitement and the trill of it all. We must maintain our heritage in Pennsylvania, and that heritage is all about hunting.
The other proposal involves doe hunting permits and the commission’s deer management assistance program. Adopted in 2003, the program allows landowners to apply for additional doe hunting permits good for their specific properties. It’s intended to give them a say in how deer are managed. The problem with this is that many hunters feel this has been applied too aggressively on state forestlands.
In other words, there are hot spots and cold spots. There are either too many deer or too little deer. It’s not spread out accordingly, which almost defeats the purpose of the deer management assistance program.
What do you think of these proposed changes? For more information on them and other possible tweaks that might happen, please check out Bob Frye’s article.