Bear kill still lagging and other outdoor news

Posted on: November 27, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

The bear kill has been impacted by weather.

This year’s bear kill could be Pennsylvania’s lowest in 10 years.
Photo: Pixabay

Pennsylvania’s black bear kill is on pace to be a record – a record low, that is.

At least in terms of the past decade.

By the close of the statewide bear season, hunters killed 2,296 bears, according to a preliminary count from the Pennsylvania Game Commission. That includes seven taken in the early season, 473 in the archery season and 1,810 in the firearms season.

That number will grow.

Extended bear seasons begin this week in some wildlife management units. In those places, hunters with a bear tag can – at least on certain days — kill a bear while also looking for deer.

Last year, hunters killed 691 bears in that “bonus” round.

If they do about as well this year, the kill will approach 3,000.

That’s not terrible by any means. No other state in the Northeast can compare in terms of bear numbers, hunter opportunity or harvest.

It’s good to be king, right?

But it would be about 15 percent fewer than last year, when they killed 3,529.

More than that, it would be the smallest kill in a while.

Not since 2007 – when hunters took 2,362 – has the harvest been 3,000 or less.

The problem this year was weather. Opening day of the statewide bear season always accounts for the largest part of the harvest, as that’s when the most hunters are in the woods.

Opening day this year, though, was marked by heavy rains in much of the state. Hunters took only 678 bears that day.

By comparison, opening day in 2016 brought a harvest of 1,297.

Hunters picked up the pace on the second day this year, taking 733 bears. That compares to 596 on day two last year.

If there’s one thing that’s the same, it’s that some big bears are turning up.

The largest seen this year so far is a 700-pound animal taken in Venango County. The top 10, meanwhile, all weighed 569 pounds or more.

Lycoming County has given up the most bears so far this year. Hunters there have killed 167.

Rounding out the top five are Tioga with 158, Potter with 142, Clinton with 139 and Pike with 112.

Closer to Pittsburgh, Somerset County has given up 53 bears, Fayette 43, Armstrong 35, Butler 18, Westmoreland 16, Cambria 12, Indiana 9 and Allegheny 1.

New tools

It’s official: Pennsylvania hunters can carry some new tools into the woods.

In September, Game Commissioners approved the use of electronic decoys for hunting waterfowl and doves, ozonic devices for covering scent and heated scent dispensers.

No rules changes go into effect, though, until published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which is a supplement to the Pennsylvania Code.

The changes approved by commissioners went into the bulletin on Nov. 18.

It will be a while yet, though, before another change takes place.

Also this fall, Game Commissioners approved – but only preliminarily – new rules creating a “disabled person access permit.” It would allow “mobility-challenged” game-lands users to use ATVs, golf carts and other mobility devices on designated routes on game lands.

This permit would be free and separate from the existing permit that allows disabled persons to hunt from motorized vehicles and ATVs. A wider variety of applicants might qualify for the new permit.

The new rules also say hunters in wheelchairs are free to go anywhere on the game lands where pedestrian foot travel is authorized.

All of those changes must get final approval from commissioners when they next meet in January. They, too, would then have to appear in the Bulletin to become official.

Gold rush

This is kind of a neat idea.

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources is partnering with that state’s tourism bureau to better promote hunting and fishing. One thing it’s going to do – much like is done in Pennsylvania – is announce details of Saturday trout stockings.

The idea is to make it easier for people to know just where and when to fish.

Something else the division is doing, though, is what’s termed the “West Virginia Gold Rush.”

During the week of April 2-6, the division will stock golden rainbow trout – and only golden rainbow trout – in a number of lakes and streams across the state.

Normally, golden rainbow trout are stocked at a one-to-10 ratio with regular rainbow trout. The hope is the “Gold Rush” will get people, especially children and new anglers, excited about the chances of catching one of these special fish.

The stockings are timed to occur when kids are off school for Easter break.

About 25,000 goldens will be stocked in all.

Safety the key

All of those geese you see in local and county parks? They’re there for one reason above all others.

Peace of mind.

A new study from “The Condor: Ornithological Applications” (http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1650/CONDOR-16-234.1) suggests that rather than food, geese are seeking safety, congregating in areas where they can avoid hunters and be buffered from the coldest winter temperatures.

Heath Hagy of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and his colleagues captured 41 geese in the greater Chicago metropolitan area between 2014 and 2016 and fitted them with radio transmitters. They tracked their movements.

In the study, 100 percent of geese that stayed within city limits survived the winter. Only 48 percent of those that ventured beyond that noundary, primarily to feed in agricultural fields, did.

That’s important to know when it comes to figuring out where to allow hunting and how to minimize wildlife-human conflicts like collisions with airplanes, the study authors wrote.

New directors

The Game Commission has appointed new directors for two of its region offices.

Tom Fazi of Ligonier is now in charge of the southwest region office. Dave Mitchell of Saylorsburg, meanwhile, is in charge of the northcentral region.

Fazi, who has worked in the southwest region throughout his 26-year career, grew up in Allegheny County and attended Penn State University before joining the Air Force. He joined the commission in 1991 and graduated in 1992.

Mitchell likewise joined the commission in 1991. He spent much of his career working n the southeast region.

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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