Post by melody on Feb 20, 2013 22:04:56 GMT -5
House Game and Fisheries Committee
2/20/13, 9:15 a.m., 60 East Wing
By Matt Hess, PLS
The committee held a public hearing to receive the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Annual Report.
Carl Roe, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC), presented the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Annual Report.
He began by addressing wildlife management issues. “The estimated harvest was 336,200 in 2011-12 hunting season, with 127,540 antlered deer and 208,660 antlerless deer,” he stated. “Buck harvest was up four percent, 50 percent of the harvest was adult bucks, and deep populations are stable in 18 Wildlife Management Units and increasing in four. Results for this year’s harvest will not be available until mid March. We saw many large bucks taken and have several additions to the Pennsylvania Record Book. We also had a record bear season, 2011 fiscal year, with 4,350 bear taken during the bear archery season, rifle season and extended season. The elk season was also productive with 53 elk being harvested. We had a strong turkey season and an average small game season. Hunters also report good success in the bobcat and fisher seasons. The coming year we are expanding those opportunities to other Wildlife Management Units.”
Roe also briefed the members on diseases affecting wildlife, discussing Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, White Nose Syndrome and Chronic Wasting Disease. “As you know Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered in a captive deer herd in Adams County,” he stated. “We immediately identified a Disease Management Area to establish certain protocols to identify if the disease is in the wild and to preclude the possible expansion of the disease area. We tested over 2,000 deer in the DMA and all came back not detected. As of today CWD has not been detected in the wild.”
Turning to license sales, Roe said the sale of licenses is steady. “2010 general sales were 924,437, 2011 general sales were 933,224 and so far in 2012, general sales are 935,471,” he stated. “We are pleased with our junior hunter license sales during the same years. We had 83,480, 83,658, and 84,751 junior hunters so far in 2012-13 license year. We are extremely pleased with our mentored youth program as those numbers have increased from 28,836 in 2009 to 33,514 in 2011 and 33,391 so far this year.”
Roe urged the committee to consider a license increase. “We have not received a license increase since you voted one in 1998; that is close to 15 years without a fee increase,” he stated. “We have trimmed programs and went through some very difficult fiscal times. For almost five years we had a flat budget. It was a very tough time and the skills of the senior management staff still kept us afloat. In the past two to three years we have been the beneficiary of Marcellus Shale revenue that has allowed us to fix some of the challenges we had.” He added “although revenues from Marcellus Shale have been a life saver, they are about commensurate with the proposed license increases in 2005 that would have provided between $16 and $20 million of revenue annually.” Roe emphasized “a license increase is needed to insure the stable funding source to manage our wildlife resources.”
Chairman Causer inquired about the Commission’s reserve funds. Roe indicated that the Commission had $45.5 million at the end of the year.
Chairman Causer asked how much the Commission generated from oil and gas. Roe said the commission generated over $21 million in leasing and royalties. “The royalty rates have not come in as fast and furious as many predicted,” Roe stated. “The price of gas is way down.” Chairman Causer asked how much the Commission has generated from timber. Roe said the Commission brought in about $5-6 million.
Chairman Causer said many citizens are concerned about the deer management program and asked what the Commission is doing to address the concerns of hunters. Roe indicated that the deer population is increasing slowly in northern Pennsylvania but emphasized “the key is keeping the deer in balance with the habitat.” He added “we’re getting fewer and fewer complaints once people understand the program; we didn’t do a very good job eight years ago when we started down this road on the education for this program.” Chairman Causer asked the Commission to respond to criticism that the DMAP is thinning the deer herd out too much. Roe stated “we gave about 22,000 permits total last year; we took a little over 4,000 deer with those DMAP permits. It’s a pretty minimal impact locally and even it was all in 2G it would be less than one deer per square mile in 2G.” Chairman Causer said deer management remains a “huge issue” with constituents and indicated that he will hold a hearing on it sometime this session. Roe invited the committee to discuss the biological side of deer management.
Chairman Haluska asked what type of information the Commission has been able to gather since implementing the Point-of-Sale system. Roe stated “one of the best thing is we actually know who are hunters in a very easy to get to database; we currently have 1.3 million in that database.”
Chairman Haluska said he introduced legislation that would update doe licensing because it is “archaic.” Roe agreed and indicated that a bill would be needed to update the license process. “The county treasurers have been great partners in selling those licenses it was a system that was viable many years ago,” he stated. “Could we build a system to make it an instantaneous lottery when you buy your genera license? Absolutely.”
Rep. Hahn asked what is being done to increase hunting participation among women and youth. Roe stated “we continue to focus on youth and women as target audiences.” He explained that the Commission has conducted Youth Field Days and implemented the Mentor Youth Program. “We partnered with the Turkey Federation and financed their Women in the Outdoors Program for three years,” he stated.
Rep. Hahn questioned if an increase in the license fee would discourage hunting. Roe stated “I think most hunters in Pennsylvania understand they get a pretty good deal; for $20 they get a buck, two turkey, all the same game, all the upland birds” and emphasized “we have the lowest license I believe in the United States.” He noted “the bill that Sen. McIlhinney introduced the last two sessions would only increase the adult license by five dollars, three years later five dollars, three years later five dollars, the youth license would stay the same, migratory bird would goes from three dollars to five dollars; also within that package we would offer a combination stamp.”
Rep. Lucas indicated that he is an instructor for the hunter/trapper education course and expressed concern about the taking out the live fire exercise from the six-hour course. “I understand that some places just can’t do it but I believe that can do it should do it,” he stated. Roe said “it’s a very comprehensive six hour course; the ten to twelve had the nice to know information as opposed to need to know.” Regarding live fire, Roe stated “it’s not part of the hunter/trapper education course but if you and your sportsman club want to offer live fire to those students after the course feel free to do it.”
Rep. Cox questioned what the Commission does with the land it acquires. Roe stated “our responsibility is to try to create the best habitat we can on those acquisitions, sometimes we let Mother Nature do her own thing, sometimes they have to be intensely managed.” Rep. Cox asked if timber sales are considered when the Commission purchases land. Roe said “timber sales and oil and gas mineral rights are certainly a consideration.”
Rep. Cox said many hunters have given up expressing their concerns to the Commission on the issue of deer management and questioned what is being done to keep hunters in Pennsylvania. Roe said “it shows in our deer surveys the older hunters are less satisfied with the deer program than our younger hunters.” He added “it is part of change and the key is keeping deer in balance with their habitat so our grandchildren’s grandchildren will have the same type of hunting experience that we’ve experienced in the last 15 years.” Roe conceded “it’s a tough nut to crack, we present the best science we can to the board of commissioners but there’s also a social/political aspect to it.” Roe noted that in a survey conducted statewide found “54 percent of the people said the deer herd was ‘about right’, 20 percent said there was ‘too many’, and 18 percent there were ‘too few’ deer; we broke that down for each Wildlife Management Unit and every Wildlife Management Unit but three had it at ‘just about right’ or ‘too many.’” Chairman Causer opined “I can predict what the survey would show if you restricted it to people just above I-80, it would be significantly different from those numbers.”
Rep. Moul asked if the Commission conducted a study to measure what percentage of the hunters are in favor of Sunday hunting. Roe indicated that the Commission has not conducted a formal study on the issue. Rep. Moul indicated that it is a 50/50 split in hunting clubs in his district.
Rep. Moul questioned what percentage of bears was harvested in Pennsylvania. Roe stated “our bear population is somewhere between 16,000 and 19,000 so it would be around somewhere between 20 and 25 percent.”
Rep. Mahoney cited a Congressional Sportsmen Foundation report which found that in “2006 there were 933,000 resident hunters in Pennsylvania and five years later 774,000; in 2006 sportsmen spent $3.5 billion supporting 51,000 jobs, five years later $1.5 billion supporting 24,794 jobs.” He added that hunting is “going up in every state except Pennsylvania” and attributed the drop off to the deer management program. Roe noted that license sales have been declining since 1989 and argued that the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation report was flawed. “You can blame deer but the reality across the board is hunting licenses and fishing licenses across the nation over the years have gone down and will probably continue to go down,” Roe stated. “It’s a matter of changing culture. If you look at the trend line as our deer population was going up, licenses were going down.” Rep. Mahoney disagreed. “The US Fish and Wildlife Service said: participation in wildlife related recreation including hunting and fishing rose significantly nationwide but federal statistics showed a nosedive in Pennsylvania hunting participation,” Rep. Mahoney stated.
Chairman Causer reiterated “the deer management program is something many of us feel very passionately about and I have pledged to my constituents that I would dive into the details and take a very close look at the deer management program.”
Rep. Rock questioned what the cost of license would be with all the associated tags except for the fur tag. Roe said it would cost “about $68.” Rep. Rock argued that a license increase would be “a tough sell coming from this committee because the perception is out there that the money coming in from Marcellus Shale and the comments we get that there are not enough deer out there.”
Rep. Rock noted that there is a pheasant restoration program in his county and asked how the program is progressing. Roe stated “we hope to get some birds this year but I will tell you it’s getting tougher and tougher to get birds out of North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas because they are losing a lot of their habitat out there under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.”
Rep. Heffley said he usually picks up a basic hunting license but often does not get a chance to go out and hunt. He questioned if he would buy a license if the price was increased and asked if the Commission considered the drop off rate of hunters if the license was increased. Roe stated “the bill that was introduced last session were only increase the basic license by five dollars and three years possibly five dollars more; those incremental increases would get us where we need to be over time without having the sticker shock all in one step.” He added “historically when we did this we lost a few hunters but they gradually came back.”
Rep. English asked for the Commission’s thoughts on merging the Fish and Boat Commission with the Game Commission. Roe stated “there’s no doubt in my mind that my senior management team could handle the situation if it was presented but we’re about twice the size of Fish and Boat Commission and merging connotes an equality and coming together; it depends on what you’re trying to achieve by the merger.”
Chairman Haluska noted that the transportation funding issue must be addressed because it is affecting timber sales in several areas of Pennsylvania because companies are being aggressively fined for damage on roads. Roe agree. “For some of our smaller operators it’s onerous on them, it’s their profit margin in many cases,” he stated. “We have had sales where people made a bid and this issue came up and we could not accept their bid anymore because of the fees they would have to pay to transport locally.”
Chairman Causer noted that local tax bases suffer when the Game Commission purchases large tracts of land. “It immediately comes off the tax rolls,” he stated. “It can cause a burden in some of those rural counties when you see large tracts coming off the tax rolls. The Game Commission currently pays a payment in lieu of taxes in the amount of $1.20 per acre.” He noted that he has sponsored legislation to raise the price to $3.60 and indicated that the legislature may examine the issue. Roe stated “we pay $1.7 million per million in lieu of taxes to communities throughout the state; that’s about three percent in of budget, that’s not insignificant for us.” Chairman Causer noted that in some counties “more than 50 percent is state-owned land off the tax rolls.” He added “we need to look at both sides of it and maybe it is time to look at that payment in lieu of taxes particularly because the Game Commission has some additional revenue to help those local communities.”
2/20/13, 9:15 a.m., 60 East Wing
By Matt Hess, PLS
The committee held a public hearing to receive the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Annual Report.
Carl Roe, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC), presented the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Annual Report.
He began by addressing wildlife management issues. “The estimated harvest was 336,200 in 2011-12 hunting season, with 127,540 antlered deer and 208,660 antlerless deer,” he stated. “Buck harvest was up four percent, 50 percent of the harvest was adult bucks, and deep populations are stable in 18 Wildlife Management Units and increasing in four. Results for this year’s harvest will not be available until mid March. We saw many large bucks taken and have several additions to the Pennsylvania Record Book. We also had a record bear season, 2011 fiscal year, with 4,350 bear taken during the bear archery season, rifle season and extended season. The elk season was also productive with 53 elk being harvested. We had a strong turkey season and an average small game season. Hunters also report good success in the bobcat and fisher seasons. The coming year we are expanding those opportunities to other Wildlife Management Units.”
Roe also briefed the members on diseases affecting wildlife, discussing Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, White Nose Syndrome and Chronic Wasting Disease. “As you know Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered in a captive deer herd in Adams County,” he stated. “We immediately identified a Disease Management Area to establish certain protocols to identify if the disease is in the wild and to preclude the possible expansion of the disease area. We tested over 2,000 deer in the DMA and all came back not detected. As of today CWD has not been detected in the wild.”
Turning to license sales, Roe said the sale of licenses is steady. “2010 general sales were 924,437, 2011 general sales were 933,224 and so far in 2012, general sales are 935,471,” he stated. “We are pleased with our junior hunter license sales during the same years. We had 83,480, 83,658, and 84,751 junior hunters so far in 2012-13 license year. We are extremely pleased with our mentored youth program as those numbers have increased from 28,836 in 2009 to 33,514 in 2011 and 33,391 so far this year.”
Roe urged the committee to consider a license increase. “We have not received a license increase since you voted one in 1998; that is close to 15 years without a fee increase,” he stated. “We have trimmed programs and went through some very difficult fiscal times. For almost five years we had a flat budget. It was a very tough time and the skills of the senior management staff still kept us afloat. In the past two to three years we have been the beneficiary of Marcellus Shale revenue that has allowed us to fix some of the challenges we had.” He added “although revenues from Marcellus Shale have been a life saver, they are about commensurate with the proposed license increases in 2005 that would have provided between $16 and $20 million of revenue annually.” Roe emphasized “a license increase is needed to insure the stable funding source to manage our wildlife resources.”
Chairman Causer inquired about the Commission’s reserve funds. Roe indicated that the Commission had $45.5 million at the end of the year.
Chairman Causer asked how much the Commission generated from oil and gas. Roe said the commission generated over $21 million in leasing and royalties. “The royalty rates have not come in as fast and furious as many predicted,” Roe stated. “The price of gas is way down.” Chairman Causer asked how much the Commission has generated from timber. Roe said the Commission brought in about $5-6 million.
Chairman Causer said many citizens are concerned about the deer management program and asked what the Commission is doing to address the concerns of hunters. Roe indicated that the deer population is increasing slowly in northern Pennsylvania but emphasized “the key is keeping the deer in balance with the habitat.” He added “we’re getting fewer and fewer complaints once people understand the program; we didn’t do a very good job eight years ago when we started down this road on the education for this program.” Chairman Causer asked the Commission to respond to criticism that the DMAP is thinning the deer herd out too much. Roe stated “we gave about 22,000 permits total last year; we took a little over 4,000 deer with those DMAP permits. It’s a pretty minimal impact locally and even it was all in 2G it would be less than one deer per square mile in 2G.” Chairman Causer said deer management remains a “huge issue” with constituents and indicated that he will hold a hearing on it sometime this session. Roe invited the committee to discuss the biological side of deer management.
Chairman Haluska asked what type of information the Commission has been able to gather since implementing the Point-of-Sale system. Roe stated “one of the best thing is we actually know who are hunters in a very easy to get to database; we currently have 1.3 million in that database.”
Chairman Haluska said he introduced legislation that would update doe licensing because it is “archaic.” Roe agreed and indicated that a bill would be needed to update the license process. “The county treasurers have been great partners in selling those licenses it was a system that was viable many years ago,” he stated. “Could we build a system to make it an instantaneous lottery when you buy your genera license? Absolutely.”
Rep. Hahn asked what is being done to increase hunting participation among women and youth. Roe stated “we continue to focus on youth and women as target audiences.” He explained that the Commission has conducted Youth Field Days and implemented the Mentor Youth Program. “We partnered with the Turkey Federation and financed their Women in the Outdoors Program for three years,” he stated.
Rep. Hahn questioned if an increase in the license fee would discourage hunting. Roe stated “I think most hunters in Pennsylvania understand they get a pretty good deal; for $20 they get a buck, two turkey, all the same game, all the upland birds” and emphasized “we have the lowest license I believe in the United States.” He noted “the bill that Sen. McIlhinney introduced the last two sessions would only increase the adult license by five dollars, three years later five dollars, three years later five dollars, the youth license would stay the same, migratory bird would goes from three dollars to five dollars; also within that package we would offer a combination stamp.”
Rep. Lucas indicated that he is an instructor for the hunter/trapper education course and expressed concern about the taking out the live fire exercise from the six-hour course. “I understand that some places just can’t do it but I believe that can do it should do it,” he stated. Roe said “it’s a very comprehensive six hour course; the ten to twelve had the nice to know information as opposed to need to know.” Regarding live fire, Roe stated “it’s not part of the hunter/trapper education course but if you and your sportsman club want to offer live fire to those students after the course feel free to do it.”
Rep. Cox questioned what the Commission does with the land it acquires. Roe stated “our responsibility is to try to create the best habitat we can on those acquisitions, sometimes we let Mother Nature do her own thing, sometimes they have to be intensely managed.” Rep. Cox asked if timber sales are considered when the Commission purchases land. Roe said “timber sales and oil and gas mineral rights are certainly a consideration.”
Rep. Cox said many hunters have given up expressing their concerns to the Commission on the issue of deer management and questioned what is being done to keep hunters in Pennsylvania. Roe said “it shows in our deer surveys the older hunters are less satisfied with the deer program than our younger hunters.” He added “it is part of change and the key is keeping deer in balance with their habitat so our grandchildren’s grandchildren will have the same type of hunting experience that we’ve experienced in the last 15 years.” Roe conceded “it’s a tough nut to crack, we present the best science we can to the board of commissioners but there’s also a social/political aspect to it.” Roe noted that in a survey conducted statewide found “54 percent of the people said the deer herd was ‘about right’, 20 percent said there was ‘too many’, and 18 percent there were ‘too few’ deer; we broke that down for each Wildlife Management Unit and every Wildlife Management Unit but three had it at ‘just about right’ or ‘too many.’” Chairman Causer opined “I can predict what the survey would show if you restricted it to people just above I-80, it would be significantly different from those numbers.”
Rep. Moul asked if the Commission conducted a study to measure what percentage of the hunters are in favor of Sunday hunting. Roe indicated that the Commission has not conducted a formal study on the issue. Rep. Moul indicated that it is a 50/50 split in hunting clubs in his district.
Rep. Moul questioned what percentage of bears was harvested in Pennsylvania. Roe stated “our bear population is somewhere between 16,000 and 19,000 so it would be around somewhere between 20 and 25 percent.”
Rep. Mahoney cited a Congressional Sportsmen Foundation report which found that in “2006 there were 933,000 resident hunters in Pennsylvania and five years later 774,000; in 2006 sportsmen spent $3.5 billion supporting 51,000 jobs, five years later $1.5 billion supporting 24,794 jobs.” He added that hunting is “going up in every state except Pennsylvania” and attributed the drop off to the deer management program. Roe noted that license sales have been declining since 1989 and argued that the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation report was flawed. “You can blame deer but the reality across the board is hunting licenses and fishing licenses across the nation over the years have gone down and will probably continue to go down,” Roe stated. “It’s a matter of changing culture. If you look at the trend line as our deer population was going up, licenses were going down.” Rep. Mahoney disagreed. “The US Fish and Wildlife Service said: participation in wildlife related recreation including hunting and fishing rose significantly nationwide but federal statistics showed a nosedive in Pennsylvania hunting participation,” Rep. Mahoney stated.
Chairman Causer reiterated “the deer management program is something many of us feel very passionately about and I have pledged to my constituents that I would dive into the details and take a very close look at the deer management program.”
Rep. Rock questioned what the cost of license would be with all the associated tags except for the fur tag. Roe said it would cost “about $68.” Rep. Rock argued that a license increase would be “a tough sell coming from this committee because the perception is out there that the money coming in from Marcellus Shale and the comments we get that there are not enough deer out there.”
Rep. Rock noted that there is a pheasant restoration program in his county and asked how the program is progressing. Roe stated “we hope to get some birds this year but I will tell you it’s getting tougher and tougher to get birds out of North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas because they are losing a lot of their habitat out there under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.”
Rep. Heffley said he usually picks up a basic hunting license but often does not get a chance to go out and hunt. He questioned if he would buy a license if the price was increased and asked if the Commission considered the drop off rate of hunters if the license was increased. Roe stated “the bill that was introduced last session were only increase the basic license by five dollars and three years possibly five dollars more; those incremental increases would get us where we need to be over time without having the sticker shock all in one step.” He added “historically when we did this we lost a few hunters but they gradually came back.”
Rep. English asked for the Commission’s thoughts on merging the Fish and Boat Commission with the Game Commission. Roe stated “there’s no doubt in my mind that my senior management team could handle the situation if it was presented but we’re about twice the size of Fish and Boat Commission and merging connotes an equality and coming together; it depends on what you’re trying to achieve by the merger.”
Chairman Haluska noted that the transportation funding issue must be addressed because it is affecting timber sales in several areas of Pennsylvania because companies are being aggressively fined for damage on roads. Roe agree. “For some of our smaller operators it’s onerous on them, it’s their profit margin in many cases,” he stated. “We have had sales where people made a bid and this issue came up and we could not accept their bid anymore because of the fees they would have to pay to transport locally.”
Chairman Causer noted that local tax bases suffer when the Game Commission purchases large tracts of land. “It immediately comes off the tax rolls,” he stated. “It can cause a burden in some of those rural counties when you see large tracts coming off the tax rolls. The Game Commission currently pays a payment in lieu of taxes in the amount of $1.20 per acre.” He noted that he has sponsored legislation to raise the price to $3.60 and indicated that the legislature may examine the issue. Roe stated “we pay $1.7 million per million in lieu of taxes to communities throughout the state; that’s about three percent in of budget, that’s not insignificant for us.” Chairman Causer noted that in some counties “more than 50 percent is state-owned land off the tax rolls.” He added “we need to look at both sides of it and maybe it is time to look at that payment in lieu of taxes particularly because the Game Commission has some additional revenue to help those local communities.”