MIddle Creek wildlife management area is popular with hunters and tourists for its amazing displays of waterfowl. Game Commission officials say they may have to scale back its operation, however, in a budgetary move.
Photo courtesy PA Game Commission
Prepare for more bad news.
That’s one of the messages Pennsylvania Game Commissioners have been delivering as of late.
Recently they were discussing the closing of two of the agency’s four pheasant farms, and the resulting reduction in birds stocked from 220,000 this past fall to – they hope 170,000 this autumn.
Those closures were necessitated by a lack of money. The price of hunting and furtaking licenses hasn’t increased since 1999 and, commissioners said, they had no choice but to close the facilities, lay off staff and reduce pheasant numbers.
Then, they said that more bad news could yet be on the way.
“This could become a first step if we don’t get our budget crisis solved,” said commissioner Jim Daley of Butler County.
Indeed, closing the pheasant farms was probably already the 20th cutback the commission has enacted over the past three years, said board president Brian Hoover of Delaware County. The others were just more subtle in terms of public notice.
“It has just not directly affected the hunters,” he said.
More cuts that will be felt by all sportsmen are in the works if the commission doesn’t get an infusion of revenue soon, he warned.
“There’s more to come. If we do not get a license increase, there is more to come,” Hoover said. “I want everybody to understand that.”
Commissioner Dave Putnam of Centre County agreed.
“This cycle is going to continue until we get a license increase. There are other oxen that are going to get gored as we go forward. And some of them are going to be egregious,” Putnam said.
Commission executive director Matt Hough recently outlined what those cuts might entail. The commission may close the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area Visitor Center and the Howard Nursery.
“I have no doubt these proposals will not be popular with the general public or our hunting-license buyers. However, without additional revenues, we will have no choice but to continue to make significant reductions in the programs and services we provide to remain within our budget,” Hough said.
Lawmakers said in a recent hearing that they’d hate to see those kinds of closures. Hough said he understands, but added that little budget cuts won’t suffice given the commission’s financial state. Like it or not, it has to look for big savings, he said.
“We’re being forced into things now we have no desire to do,” Hough said.
