It’s not necessarily true that deer are rare in some parts of the state. It’s that they’re hard to find.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Some hunters complain of too few deer in Pennsylvania’s northern hardwoods.
That may be true in places, said Phil Lehman, of the Potter/Tioga County Farm Bureau. But there’s no denying the deer around are bigger than they once were.
He moved to Potter County from Lancaster in 1977.
“Back then, a 90-inch buck was a trophy,” he said, referring to antler inches. “Now, a 120-inch buck probably isn’t even worth taking to the big buck contest.”
The problem with the quality of the bucks, from his perspective, is that landowners are trying to keep access to those deer to themselves. That’s led to a lot of posting against trespassing, he said, and as a result unnecessary crop damage.
Steve Trupe of Potter County, who manages hunting lands for several property owners, said the issue goes beyond posting, though.
There are plenty of deer around in places like Potter County, he said. There aren’t nearly the hunters there once were to move them around, though. And those that do turn out sit in tree stands all day.
Whereas once it was common to see 75 to 100 deer a day, “there are days now where I don’t see a deer anymore.”
He knows they exist, he said. He’s got pictures of them on trail cameras, some of them bucks in the 160- and 170-inch class.
“You guys have done a tremendous job with deer management,” he told Game Commissioners. “But you’ve shot yourselves in the foot. You’ve created bigger, older, smarter deer with full bellies. And they don’t have to move around in the daytime.”
He suggested the commission might want to try shorter, but more frequent, deer hunting seasons to force people into the woods in big numbers to push deer around.
Healthy parks
Think getting outside is good for you? You’re right.
Camping is not only fun, it’s healthy, too.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Researchers at Penn State University recently published a paper on the health benefits of exploring parks. It appeared in “Preventing Chronic Disease,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s peer-reviewed magazine.
They found that people who use their local parks or participate in recreation programs are healthier, or at least believe themselves to be so. That’s truer now than in the past, they added.
“Based on this information, parks and recreational services should be considered a key part of America’s health care system, as the connection of these services to health is becoming more evident over time,” said Nicholas Pitas, lead author and doctoral candidate at Penn State. “This study supports the importance of locally offered recreation services, and argues in favor of investing in local park facilities and recreation programming.”
Bear boom
Perhaps this is too much of a good thing?
The number of black bears in Michigan is on the rise, according to biologists with that state’s Department of Natural Resources.
According to a story on mlive.com, bear numbers are growing in the Upper Peninsula. But it’s in the Lower Peninsula, where people are more heavily concentrated, where the animals are really doing well, with their numbers up 50 percent since 2000.
That’s leading to problems, though.
Swanson told mlive.com that people are complaining of encounters with bears resulting in what’s called a bluff charge, where a bear will run full speed at a human or animal, and then stop suddenly short without ever attacking.
Biologists want to increase the bear harvest in that area this coming fall.
Goodbye paper
It’s the way of the world.
Tom Grohol
Paper applications for applying for a controlled goose blind at Pymatuning Wildlife Management Area in Crawford are going away.
Tom Grohol, head of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s bureau of wildlife protection, said that starting this fall, applications will be handled online only. The same will be true at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lebanon County.
The change is meant to make things more efficient and cost effective, he said.
Boat loans
If you’re looking to buy a boat, the Boat Owners Association of the United States has some advice.
Ten pieces of it, actually.
The group is offering 10 tips on getting the right boat loan. They range from the obvious, like checking your credit, to finding the right loan type, getting a boat surveyed and more.
The full list of suggestions can be found here.
Good fishing
Where is the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission creating habitat to support fisheries and good angling in lakes and streams statewide?
Commissioner Len Lichvar wants to know. And more importantly, he wants the angling public to know.
To that end, he’s asked the agency’s habitat section to identify all ongoing projects – in a “dots on a map” kind of way – by the board’s April or July meeting.
The idea is to let people know what’s going on where and why, and perhaps allow for partnerships to be formed with watershed and sportsmen’s groups, he said.
“I think it would be useful to show the broad perspective across the state,” Lichvar said.
