Pheasant stocking specifics and other outdoor news

Posted on: October 3, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

Stocked pheasants are headed solely to public lands in 2017.

The Game Commission is trying to make it very clear to hunters its pheasant stocking program.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures

You want pheasant stocking specifics? Here are pheasant stocking specifics.

In an attempt to make the best use of its birds – meaning, help hunters find and kill them before the coyotes, foxes and hawks do — the Pennsylvania Game Commission is explaining just where its birds are going.

And it’s using an interactive map to do it.

For the first time ever this fall, the commission has an interactive pheasant stocking map. Hunters who check out the map will see dots showing stocking locations.

Zoom in on a dot, though, and you find out the name of the property, how many times it will get birds and how many birds it will get.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Crooked Creek Lake property in Armstrong County is getting 260 birds spread across five stockings, for example.

Just to the east, state game land 248 in Indiana County is getting stocked five times, too. But it’s getting 120 birds.

And state game land 203 in Allegheny County – being so close to so many hunters – is getting stocked six times. But it’s getting 1,170 birds.

So hunters can pick and choose based on how many birds and what kinds of crowds to expect.

Perhaps the best feature of the map, though, is that it shows – at least with most properties – just where birds are being released.

Zoom in on state game land 189 in Beaver County and you’ll see that birds from each pheasant stocking are going to be released in just a few locations, primarily along Allison Road. No sense wasting too much time elsewhere then, right?

Fighting words

The battle has begun.

Last week, as reported here, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioners gave executive director John Arway the authority to cut $2 million from the agency budget starting on July 1.

He’s expected to tell commissioners in January just how he’ll do it.

But the plan right now calls for closing three hatcheries and stocking 242,000 fewer adult trout. The commission would also release fewer walleyes, catfish and tiger muskies, among other things. It would scale back the cooperative trout nursery program, too.

Pottery County Republican Rep. Martin Causer.

Rep. Martin Causer

The cutbacks in trout stockings would be spread across the state.

Sort of.

Three areas – notably, the home districts of three state Representatives who have blocked efforts to raise fishing license fees – would bear the brunt of things.

At least one isn’t happy about it.

State Rep. Martin Causer, a Potter County Republican, fired off a letter taking exception to what he termed the commission’s “playing politics.”

“Director Arway hasn’t gotten his way, so he’s decided to threaten members of the General Assembly in an attempt to get votes on a bill that would give him and the commission free reign to hike license fees anytime they want without going to the legislature for approval. Clearly this agency needs more legislative oversight, not less,” Causer said.

Arway has since sent an email called “current state of affairs” to anglers and boaters. It attempts to explain why the agency needs more money.

Elk country

Pennsylvania has more elk habitat than it did just a few weeks ago.

Seven hundred and seventy-six more acres, to be precise.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Game Commission and a private donor teamed up to buy the property. Located in Centre County, it extends the western unit of state game land 100 to the north along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

That expands that unit to 5,272 acres – improving public access to the property in the process – while expanding the overall size of game land 100 to 21,069 acres.

“This critical acquisition to the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s state game land system will not only enhance the agency’s ability to better manage the southern dispersal of its elk herd, but it will benefit all Pennsylvanians by adding an additional 766 acres,” said the agency’s executive director, Bryan Burhans.

The site includes oak and pine woodlands, meadows, grassland and riparian habitat along 1.24 miles of river. It is home to elk, whitetail deer, black bears, turkey, grouse and other wildlife.

Tour

The Game Commission’s southwest region is hosting a public tour of state game land 108 in northern Cambria County from noon to 4 p.m. on Oct. 8. It will be a 7.5-mile, self-guided, one-way driving tour highlighting mountainous terrain and fall foliage on the Allegheny Front.

Visitors will see a rehabilitated strip-mined area that’s been converted to small-game habitat. The area also serves as a study area for grassland nesting birds, including the Henslow’s sparrow.

The tour also highlights tree and shrub identification, wildlife habitat food plots and a deer exclosure fence. Each tour participant will be provided with directions and other information. Commission staff will be on hand to answer questions.

It begins at the game lands access road three-tenths of a mile north of Frugality, along state Route 53. It will conclude on Route 865 near Blandburg.

CWD

Chronic wasting disease is a serious threat to white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and other “cervids.”

So what’s anyone doing about it?

Not enough, according to the Archery Trade Association and 14 other conservation organizations. All want to see more money spent on research, testing and prevention.

In late summer, the National Deer Alliance and the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies organized a meeting in Washington, D.C. Its goal: create a coordinated strategy for CWD funding, education and political action.

The groups agreed to merge their “ongoing and diluted CWD efforts” into one unified voice.

They’ll be lobbying members of Congress, among other things.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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