Waterways and wildlife conservation officers work together on some issues. But should they be part of the same unit?
Photo by PA Fish and Boat Commission
Multiple times over the years Pennsylvania lawmakers have wondered if it might make sense to merge the state’s Game and Fish and Boat commissions.
They’re wondering again, sort of.
The executive directors of the two agencies delivered their annual reports to the House of Representatives game and fisheries committee on back to back days recently. Both highlighted the need for new revenue.
Hunting license prices haven’t changed since 1999, fishing license prices since 2005.
That prompted a couple of lawmakers to wonder if there might not be savings in combining at least a few functions of the commissions.
Rep. Garth Everett, a Lycoming County Republican, said he’s often asked by constituents in his home district “why can’t a WCO be a WCO be a WCO,” referring to waterways conservation officers with Fish and Boat and wildlife conservation officers with the Game Commission.
“Why can’t a WCO enforce both the game and fish side of things?” Everett asked.
John Arway, executive director of the Fish and Boat Commission, said officers from the two agencies can enforce each other’s regulations, and do work together. But, he added, there’s no such thing as a “down season” for officers, as some believe.
If anything, there’s a need for more “boots on the ground,” not fewer combined officers, he added.
A day later, Rep. Bryan Barbin, the Somerset County Democrat who serves as minority chair of the committee asked if the Game Commission had given any thought to merging some of its operations, such as law enforcement, with the Fish and Boat Commission, to create a “consolidated police force.”
Matt Hough, Game’s executive director until retiring on Friday, repeated much of what Arway had a day earlier, saying that the agencies simply need more money. As wildlife conservation officers have retired or left, there’s just been no money to find replacements, Hough said.
The commission expects its force of officers to be down 30 percent by 2018 and 40 percent by 2019.
The commission has asked Gov. Tom Wolf’s office for permission to spend money from its reserve account to train a new class of officers. Even if that’s granted, though, it will take two years for those officers to be ready, Hough said.
That’s going to mean real problems, he added.
“There is no way to skirt around the fact that poaching incidences will go undetected, and our officers will be limited in the services that they can provide to the public,” Hough said.
Hough did say, though, that some consolidation of the commissions may come.
Gov. Tom Wolf, he said, has tasked some other state agencies to attempt combining some functions, such as their human resources and IT departments. It’s an attempt to minimize overlap.
“We were not involved in that in the first round, but I understand that if it works there, they will probably be coming to the commissions to do that in the future,” Hough said.
