April 12, 2011
Release #045-11
GAME COMMISSIONERS ADOPT 2011-12 SEASONS AND BAG LIMITS
HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today gave final approval to hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits for 2011-12, including big and small game seasons and furbearer seasons.
The Board also adopted antlerless deer license allocations for the 22 Wildlife Management Units, and are listed in the article below.
For those unable to view the webcasts, a three-part “on-demand” video recording of the staff reports from April 11 and today’s Board actions can be viewed by going to/pennsylvaniagamecommissionhttp://www.livestream.com/pennsylvaniagamecommission and clicking on the “April 2011 Board Meeting” icon.
The remainder of the News Release 045-11 gives a detailed summation of seasons and bag limits, which may be read by clicking here: Release 045-11.
The following is an article and commentary by me, describing the discussion of the elk situation on the Webcast as I understood it.
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| Winlsow Hill Herd To Be Targeted: Photo by W.Hill |
A very small portion of the April 11th webcast concerns the Pennsylvania elk herd. According to Dr. Chris Rosenberry the elk herd is increasing overall, and is stable in some areas, but the Winslow Hill herd is the largest sub-herd and it has increased the most of any since last year. As a result the PGC has recommended that the harvest in Hunt Zone 2 be doubled from last year's allocation. This year 12 cows and 4 bulls, YES FOUR Bulls, will be legal targets near the viewing areas on Winslow Hill. This of course does not count the Governor's Conservation Tag bull, which of course can be taken there also ,for a total of 5 Yes Five possible bulls killed in the center of elk related tourism. It is unclear at this point if this recommendation was finalized at this meeting.To underscore the importance of the Pennsylvania Elk Herd to the PGC, Rosenberry's elk presentation was an astonishing 1 min. 35 seconds long, before he moved on to the deer.
If approved, this leads one to question just what level of commitment the PGC does have to elk related tourism on Winslow Hill. Why double the number of bull permits in this area to control the population? One can be certain that it will not be raghorns that will be killed!
Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill
8 comments:
Very disturbing news Willard. It's especially disturbing after watching "2D" for a few moments last night as he grazed. Here's a bull that has great potential to grow to be a very majestic animal and for what, to be picked off in an open field by someone that only visits here to claim a trophy. It sickens us.
oh willard i am heart broken. what can we do? i know i am not from there but email me or comment on my blog if you have any ideas. i heard gun shots that sounded so close to the house but since the trees have no leaves yet the source was in the land beside our belonging to a trailer court. i have such a fear of that sound. i hope you find time to stop by, i am giving away a white flower farm gift certificate if you guess who buttercup is...your wife will like it if you win if she enjoys gardening and veggies. take care!!
Dear Willard, there are periods that I have to "rest" from reading your blog because learning the cruel truth is too much for me. But then I am drawn back by the photos (of the live animals, at least) and your information about their lives.
Thanks also for your poetic, philosophical comment about the donkey and friends.
Take care out there.
It is very clear that the PGC has no interest in the eco-tourism in the Pa Wilds and perhaps partly a result of our new Governor’s drive on drilling & fracking the Marcellus shale.
According to reports I have read Governor Corbett received over$1,000,000 of campaign contributions from the energy industries and has done everything in his power to give them unfettered access to the region, including untaxed! Tourism in the Pa Wilds will stand in the way of the gas companies so how better to start than eliminate the huge bulls that are one of the core attractions to the area.
Governor Rendell certainly has his faults but he when it came to the elk and the environment he was a breath of fresh air compared to what we have now.
We heard the mantra "drill baby drill" now when it comes to the elk in the tourist area it "kill baby kill"!
The PGC has certainly lined there pockets under the guise of Elk protection. It is indeed a sad day that they will allow a "hunt" of basically pretty tame Elk. I for one am glad that my 88 yr old Uncle John can no longer venture to the Winslow Hill area to hike some of the trails to view, video, and photograph these beautiful animals. He as am I, would be disgusted with what all the commercialization has done to the area. Now they want to include these "tame" Elk in the hunt. Pitiful way to manage and protect these beautiful creatures. I guess it would just be too much bother to "relocate" a few of them to other parts of Pennsylvania. Tis indeed, a sad state of affairs.
This is very sad, Willard. One has to wonder why the people in charge want all of the healthy monster bulls to disappear when they just spent millions on an ELK visitor center.
Everyone loved Fred. Hope they all realize that we will never have another elk reach that age again.
Hope these hunters can support the new center, because that area is slowly losing a lot of tourist dollars because of the way the 'hunt' is being handled.
Willard
This is sad--there are two very decent bulls that you and I saw at Winslow before last hunt-one is in picture in this post--I predict they do not make it through this year. Maybe there will be a mass kill on the side of Dewey Road and that may get some attention! probably more than they would like
Jim
I said it one, I'll say it again. IT ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. Sell more licenses.
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