Game Commission Delivers Annual Report to Legislature

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe today presented the agency's annual report to the General Assembly, and delivered testimony before the House Game and Fisheries Committee.  To view a copy of the agency's annual report, please visit the Game Commission's website (www.pgc.state.pa.us), click on "Resources" in the menu bar under the banner on the homepage, then select "Reports/Minutes" in the drop-down menu, click on "Annual Legislative Reports" and then click on "2009" in the listing.

Following is Roe's testimony before the House Game and Fisheries Committee:

"This has been another productive year for the Game Commission as we faced many challenges and yet were able to continue to improve some of our programs," Roe said. "We were still not able to do all we would like for the Commonwealth's wildlife or the hunters and trappers due to the lack of resources to accomplish our objectives.

"As you read through the annual report you will again see that in the program accountability section we built the report on the strategic plan objectives to give you an idea of how we manage towards the goals and objectives of the strategic plan.  Our public accountability section again addresses major program areas.  The budget accountability is relatively self-explanatory.  In the law enforcement accountability section we had five formal complaints compared to seven in 2008 and 10 in 2007. Of the five, one was sustained and was a case of unprofessional demeanor. Overall our wildlife protection efforts were again strong as we increased apprehensions for illegal take of game by 5 percent, hunting over bait by 13 percent, hunting or taking game with a motorized vehicle by 31 percent.  Over all we had 19,172 violations detected with 6,948 citations and 12,224 warnings.

"Next, I would like to offer some comment in more detail on some of our programs.  First, I would like to address some administrative programs that started last year where automation was a significant reason for the improvement in the process.  The Pennsylvania Automated License Sales System commenced this past year and it was an unqualified success.  Although there were some agent challenges early in the process, for the most part it was a great success and was very popular with both the agents and the hunters.  Additionally within the PALs system, we initiated a harvest reporting system over the internet.  We do not know the success of the system at this point or if it has increased the reporting rate, but we did receive many comments on the ease of the system.  We did have one complaint from a hunter who was frustrated that the system would not work for him.  He stated that he tried to put the antler points in the system and it would not take them.  He said he could not report his 18-point buck because he had ten points on one side and we had only single digits to place the number.  We have fixed that.

"Another area where we have used automation to increase information flow is the use of E-Bird. This is a program where our 'citizen scientists' can provide information on bird counts directly to a data base being run by Cornell University.  This allows citizens who have an interest in birding and wildlife watching to directly participate into providing important information for those programs.  This greatly assists the Christmas Bird Count and the Backyard Bird Count Programs.

"We now provide both our Hunting Digest and Game News via Nxtbook.  This is a system that allows you to view both publications in an automated manner and allows for interaction in many of our pages.  As you read the publication on the computer you actually turn the pages.  We provide this service free to all libraries and schools.  We believe this was particularly good for schools and allows for multiple students to read the Game News at the same time instead of only one person being able to read the hard cover magazine.  We also provided this service to all our land cooperators without charge.  It is a very unique system that provides broader service at a minimal cost.

"We continue to move forward with our wild pheasant reintroduction program that is a result of a great partnership with Pheasants Forever.  We are introducing pheasants again this year to our third wild pheasant restoration area in Somerset County.  Additionally, we had another area nominated for a pheasant restoration area in the south east part of the state.  Although our pheasant management plan calls for four restoration areas, we believe that with continued success and assistance from Pheasants Forever and local landowners we can exceed that objective.

"Another program that we increased this year is our support for the Wounded Warrior Program. These are armed forces service members who want to hunt after spending time in Walter Reed or Bethesda Hospital.  They want to come to Pennsylvania to hunt as a way of returning to normalcy.  We provided support to several groups this year across the state and are looking forward to keeping that program going and expanding with the support of many sportsmen's organizations.

"Last year's hunting season was pretty good across the board.  We do not have the results of the current deer season, but in 2008-09 we had an estimated deer harvest of 335,850. Our bear kill this past year was the second largest ever with 3,499 bear being taken.  This past fall's elk season was an interesting challenge.  We had the lowest success rate we ever had during our elk season. We believe this was a result of a healthy mast crop in the area that changed the elk's feeding patterns from their normal grazing habitat.  They appeared to be able to stay in the woods and eat acorns instead of coming out into the grazing areas.  It was much more difficult to pattern the elk. With that in mind, we had the same concern coming into the deer season.  It appeared because of a large mast crop in many areas it was more difficult to pattern deer this year as they did not have to move very far to get food.  They basically could move less than 100 yards and have plenty to eat from their cover areas.  We will see how the harvest was this year and see if our concerns were founded.

"Over the past few years we have made a concerted effort to improve the communication about our deer program.  As we have for the past three years, we will be offering a series of open houses in each of our regions.  All of our deer information and data is available for the public to read and understand on our web site. Additionally we publish the deer chronicle twice a year to keep the public updated on our program and last but certainly not least is our 'Ask the Biologist' site where the public can ask our biologists any question they have on their mind.

"As a result of improved habitat in the northern tier, we have had reports of increase in grouse and snowshoe hare populations.  The early successional growth has helped to provide adequate cover for these species.  Last year, we also introduced a Snow Goose Conservation Hunt that ran from the end of February to the end of March.  Hunters can apply for a no fee permit to take snow geese during this period.  

"Preliminary approval for changes in next year's hunting season includes a youth rabbit hunt for our junior license holders.  This year there will be a major change to our bobcat program.  We will move from a lottery system to a short open season for bobcats.  Hunters and trappers with a furtaker license and a five dollar permit will be able to hunt or trap bobcats.  We are also initiating a fisher season.  Our trappers will be able to trap fisher in a short season in specific wildlife management units.

"On the legislative front, the primary issue continues to be the license increase.  It has been 11 years since our last increase.  As I always mention, I do not know of any company that is surviving on a revenue stream based on 1999 values.  Certainly the rest of state government has not been held to those levels.  In fact, if our budget would have been allowed to increase at the same rate as the rest of the state, we would have been able to spend $95.2 million instead of the roughly $68 million we have spent for the past three years.  We have had numerous hearings across the state for the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee and all have been positive.  I am sure you have heard the expression that we do not deserve an increase.  Some may think that a license increase will increase our pay and that not giving an increase is punishment to us.  A license increase does not increase the pay of anyone in the Commission.  It does not provide any additional funding to individuals.  However, without an increase it does limit how well we can do wildlife programs for the public.  A license increase is about funding the wildlife resources of the Commonwealth.  It is about how you want to resource our efforts to take care of wildlife for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

"In addition to no increase in revenues, we were also hampered to perform our mission by the hiring freeze and other actions.  We were not allowed to hire key personnel that we needed to address critical problems.  Examples of that was not hiring members of our forest inventory team and delaying the hiring of our one geologist that does our oil, gas and mineral, activities.  What was difficult to understand was that our budget was approved and we had monies to hire these important positions.  It was very frustrating and the reality is since we have a separate special fund it did not affect the bottom line of the general fund budget at all.  We were also not allowed to purchase much needed vehicles last year and so far this year we have not been able to purchase vehicles again even though they are in the budget and approved.  This just complicates matters as we are delaying needed infrastructure issues that will come due in the future.

"There is another legislative issue that we would like to see and that is that owners of oil, gas and mineral rights must notify the surface owner of any pending sale or transfer of those rights.  This would preclude a lot of confusion on both public and private lands.  We have had several instances where owners of subsurface rights on state game lands have sold or moved those rights without us knowing it and we would obviously have liked to have had the opportunity to gain those rights to protect the State Game Lands.  The most obvious of these types of subsurface sales occur through county tax sales.

"Since we are rapidly approaching the end of the session, we do not anticipate much legislative activity as I am sure that the general state budget will be the primary focus of the body. However, we do want to thank the committee for their strong support of HB 1859, more commonly known as the poaching bill or increased penalty bill.  It is an important piece of legislation that will certainly assist in reducing the illegal take of wildlife.  We would also like to thank Representative Cutler for his piece of legislation that improves the understanding of the authority of our Wildlife Conservation Officers and their wildlife protection activities.

"I am sure there will be questions on Marcellus Shale, so I will quickly address the subject.  During Fiscal Year 2008, the Game Commission approved three oil/gas leases within the Marcellus Shale development areas of the Commonwealth.   These leases totaled 2,693.43 acres and were worth an average upfront payment of $907.38 dollars per acre to the Commission constituting an additional 10 acres of State Game Lands acquisition as well as revenues to the game fund.  The average royalty per acre for these leases was 23.08 percent. During Fiscal Year 2008, there were no Marcellus wells drilled on any of these leases but there were four wells planned for drilling in the Fiscal Year 2009. On all other currently active leases on State Game Lands, there were two Marcellus wells commenced and placed into production in Fiscal Year 2008.  The Game Commission received a total of $113,336.26 royalty revenues during Fiscal Year 2008 from Marcellus gas production, with the average approximate well production being only 250 mcf/day, rather than the 2,000-3,000 mcf/day production some have assumed would occur.  Unfortunately, there have also been two separate environmental degradation incidents which occurred during these wells development causing the need for increased Game Commission coordination, and oversight management scrutiny.

"We believe we have had a very positive year in the Game Commission.  There were many things in our strategic plan that we could not accomplish due to resource constraints, but we did continue to get a lot of things done.  We have updated our strategic plan and that document will drive our programs and the objectives we want to accomplish for the next five years.  We continue to update our species management plans that will assist in our integrated State Game Lands plans.  We know what we need to do to improve conditions for wildlife and in turn provide great opportunities for our hunters and trappers.  We want to do more.  This is not a mater of will but a matter of resources available to get the job done.

"We are looking forward to a bright future for the wildlife resources of the Commonwealth and with your assistance we can do more.

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SOURCE Pennsylvania Game Commission