Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I think what's so exciting about Sunday hunting is it checks both those boxes. It allows our hunters today to get out more, but it also allows them to bring that next generation and get them out more than ever before.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: We want to make sure that we can incorporate some Sundays down the road in all these seasons. I mean, our goal is to look at opportunities as all of us as hunters.
To me, our biggest role now is to make sure we're passing it on.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: And we're going to err on the side of caution. We're going to err on the side of the resource. And if our biologist is telling us that she has concerns and that opening that season on a Sunday too soon in that season was going to have an impact, then we have a responsibility. As much as we would love to see it for as a. As a hunter, we have a responsibility to say we're going to follow your recommendation and we're not going to make any changes this year.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Hello, and welcome to Call of the Outdoors, the podcast of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
I can't tell you how excited we are about today and this podcast. And just the last few months and, you know, our hunters and our agency, we've waited 130 years to talk about Sunday hunting, where we're going to be able to do it this fall, this upcoming fall. We got our executive director, Steve Smith, coming in and talking about kind of how we got there and where we're going. So thanks for coming along to call the outdoors and let's catch up with Steve. What a crazy time we're in right now in such a celebration for the Game Commission. Steve, thanks for joining us this morning.
And we're going to cover Sunday hunting.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. Let's talk about it. It is an exciting time for us.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you know, you've been the executive director now for a year and.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: A half, just about.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: And a focus that was intense. I mean, your team, the executive team, legislative team, I mean, the whole agency worked 135 years to try to get here, you know, and the process is not even fathomable. And that's what I want to talk about today, because after our board meeting here last week, you know, there's Sundays implemented this fall. You know, there's folks that think that we can just add every Sunday. And I kind of want to get to those intricacies that happen as the agency and, you know, let's just. If you would, Steve, just a little bit of background on how Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania and the legislative process that happened that led to Act 36 becoming a law.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I can talk about this at length. So I'll try to focus on what's happened over the past couple months because it really is something, as you alluded to, that we've been trying for decades going back, and it's always been kind of the holy grail of legislative issues is Sunday hunting. When we get asked, what's your legislative priority, we say Sunday hunting.
Sunday hunting. Sunday hunting. Like that was the top three right there. Sunday hunting. So it's been such a focus for me being with the agency almost two decades. It's always been just right there for us. We always needed to get the removal of the ban.
We came close last year, as you know, very close. And going into this session weren't sure if it was going to be picked up again or if the general tone of the General assembly was going to be, hey, we tried last year, it didn't happen. You know, come back in a couple of years and it could have gone either way. So we were really unsure heading into this session. Quickly found out, though, that the tone was, you almost got it done last year. Let's just give you a little extra help. And what it really came down to, and I can't thank these two individuals enough, Senator Dan Laughlin and Representative Mandy Steele, both have been out in front of this issue a long time. Both have made it their signature issues. And they both just said, we don't care whose bill it is, we don't care who gets the credit. We just want to see this thing get done and we're going to do whatever it takes. One in the House, one in the Senate. And that was a game changer. That's what really gave us that extra edge this year coming into it. So things unfolded. And when they did, it happened pretty quickly. It was a whirlwind kind of a couple weeks. But it was the cumulation of decades of work on the Game Commission's part, on our stakeholders part in the hunting community. And we were joined by the Farm Bureau, a new stakeholder, a new part of that coalition. And it was a broad coalition. And we had that support in the House, we had that support in the Senate. And it was able to all come together in a way that happened quicker than I think we all thought it would have taken place. To have this bill introduced in May and have this sit there with the governor when he signed it in July is a lot to happen in the legislative world. It just usually doesn't happen that quickly. But hey, it did, and it's for the benefit of Pennsylvania hunters.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: And here we are.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: And here we are.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: When you think about it, too, you know, when I got to enjoy the bill signing back at Blue Ridge and the governor supportive and excited about it, and when you think about a lot of times we see that comparison to US and other states, I mean, there's 30 some states that have Sunday hunting. And eventually my prediction is we get down the road a couple years, we won't even know like it happened. Sundays will just be a thing. Now it's now it's new. So, you know, fast forward to, you know, what this bill says, because after our board mission or board meeting, excuse me, we set the Sundays. But what did this bill actually do? That's where a lot of folks are confused and confused about what our job is as an agency. And I think we should clear that up.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Sure. Sometimes on the legislative front, a bill can have a big impact by removing things. And that's what this bill did. As it related to Sunday hunting. It didn't include language. It just struck out language. And what it struck out was the language in the law that said, broadly speaking, Sunday hunting is prohibited. And there were a few exceptions underneath that on species, there was a few exceptions added a couple years ago to add days. The bill just removed all of that. It just took that prohibition and it's gone. It's no longer there. So that's a significant change. And what that means for our board moving forward is now they can set seasons and just incorporate Sundays into that season structure as if it's any other day of the week. So that's exciting. And that's going to give them a lot more options moving forward.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: So when we go to that point, let's talk about the board, because I'm just going to use myself as an example. You know, before I came to work here at the Game Commission, you know, I called game wardens, game commissioners, you know, and I still hear that a lot. And, you know, shame on me because I didn't get involved. And funny thing was I had a friend text me day of the board meeting, which just happened to be the same day that the second round of Antlerless came out. And he was asking if it was busy. And I said, why don't you come to the meeting, see how this works? Because I think a lot of hunters should get engaged. And let's talk about that process. What our board, what happens with our board, what their main focus is as the board of commissioners. Because they're your boss.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: They are. And we have And I mean this honestly. We have a great board that's very engaged in the hunting community and that comes from that community and represents that community. There's nine of them. They have districts all across the state appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Senate, and they serve four year terms. And their job is to review the data and the recommendations that we as staff bring to them and then make the final decisions on things like seasons, seasons, bag limits, regulations pertaining to game lands. A whole lot of the powers that are given to them impact everything that we do as an agency, but that falls on them to set those regulations.
The board meets four times a year. We try to front load their meetings so that in January and April they're really dealing with the substantive issues. They're really dealing with the season lengths then so that we can get all that information into the digest in time, turn it around and get it to our hunters by the time hunting season starts.
So the board's role, as I said, moving forward is going to be when they consider the length of a season, when it should start, when it should end, how long it goes, all those things that they take into consideration. Now they can just incorporate Sundays into that. And that provision in the law was always an obstacle that they had to manage around. They always had to structure the seasons, knowing that if it's a two week season, two of those days there wasn't going to be any hunting. So how do we calculate the length accordingly? Now that obstacle's gone, they can just incorporate Sundays right into it. And at the end of the day, it means a lot more time for our hunters.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: And, you know, that leads us right into the next, the next angle. And what has transpired here more recently to get Sundays incorporated in this fall? Our seasons and bags were set in January, they were approved in April. We're already, you know, hunting season published in the digest. We're knocking on the door of hunting season and then the bill becomes law.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Right?
[00:08:28] Speaker B: And you know, what had to take place. And every sportsman out there should probably buy you a drink for this is an executive order, because that's, that's how we got it across the goal line to make it happen this fall. You know, there's obviously social media. We see comments that say, you know, open them all this and that our job is to manage the resource. And this is another free day, as all of our surveys are saying, like, time is the opportunity, the opportunity that people need. And that's where Sundays, you know, really play an important role.
And we expect every sportsman out there to you know, introduce someone new to hunting. We have that time. That's a great thing that's happening to us right now. But let's talk about the executive order, if you will.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: That's a great question. And you're right, the timing wasn't ideal. And that's because of our board. As we talked about already, they begin this process in January, typically finalize it in April, get everything into the digest. And we knew as this bill started to move, as there started to be momentum behind it, that there was a very good chance it would land on the governor's desk around July. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. And we even talked about, do we slow it down a little bit? Because it's going to come in right when it's probably too late for our board to pass regulations and we didn't want it. That was quickly dismissed as an option. We said, this is a chance to get it done this year, let's get it done this year and we'll deal with it. We'll figure out a way to put it in place. Because there was so much pent up energy and excitement around hunting on Sundays, we didn't want to do anything to slow it down.
So once the governor signed the bill, I took a look at can we then have our board come in and amend the seasons through the regulatory process so that we can incorporate Sundays this fall, which is.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: It takes two meetings.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: It takes two meetings, which when you think about it's not just the board makes an amendment and then comes back and does it again. They have to, those regulations have to go over to the Attorney General's office for review. They have to be published in the PA bulletin and then that process has to repeat itself. So you're really looking at about a minimum of 12 weeks. And that's if everything goes well. Any setbacks and it's longer. So when we looked at the calendar, that would mean the regulations could take effect probably mid November.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: We already have Sunday hunting in mid November. So it would have been for this year. It would have been for naught. We could have celebrated it next year, but really wouldn't have provided any benefit this year. And I didn't think that was a good outcome.
And fortunately, decades ago, the board had the foresight to put into regulation a provision that, as best as we can tell, it's probably only been used twice in about the past 40 years. But that provision that is in regulation, allows the executive director to by executive order, extend seasons beyond the framework that the board had established as Long as the data shows that the population can withstand additional hunting.
So as we evaluated the options to incorporate Sundays into this fall, we kept going back to that as probably the only logical path forward. And I can say in honesty, we exhausted all other options we looked at. Is there any way we could have it in front of our board through the regular process? And there just wasn't the calendar. The math was not in our favor. So we went back to that executive order option. And I wanted to implement it by executive order. But I also wanted our board to play a big role in that.
Deservedly so. Right. That's what the board is there for, is to set seasons and back limits. I didn't want just me by my, you know, signature to incorporate Sunday hunting. I wanted the board to have a say. So what we did is a real unusual process. We. We put a resolution in front of the board asking the board to direct me to issue an executive order. And that resolution included recommendations for some dates for Sundays, and it would begin on Sunday, September 14, and then go all the way through to Sunday, December 7.
For those who watch that meeting, and I encourage everyone to take a look at it with our board, there's a real good discussion back and forth with our board with the biologists talking about making sure that those species can withstand the hunting on those days. And ultimately the board adopted the resolution and our recommendations. So what that means is now I have the authority through the existing regulations as well as the board resolution to go ahead and sign an executive order that's going to open up hunting on those Sundays, which at the end of the day, I mean, it's a long way to get there. But what it means for our hunters is 10 additional Sundays for a total of 13 Sundays this fall, where anything that's open when on a. On a season that falls on that Sunday is also going to be open. So for a lot of our hunters, I mean, this is going to have a big impact.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: It's going to be funny for a lot of our hunters, too. And, you know, I've been fortunate to travel out of state, and I remember the first time I ever hunted on a Sunday. I felt like I was doing something wrong.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: You know, anybody that's not had that opportunity. Now, we have had three additional Sundays for the last few years, but like I said before, there was a lot behind the scenes that we're making this happen.
For those of you that are out there listening, Steve would be the last one to leave the office every night. I mean, he wore it heavy. I'M sure your wife is glad that this one is over, but it meant a lot to you, and you put everything you had into this. And as an agency, as a hunter, we can't thank you enough for that because, I mean, I know it's a team. It took a team to get it done.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: It really did.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: But you led a charge that's, you know, that's been tried before, and a lot of stars lined up, a lot of our partners joined in. And it just shows when you look at conservation as a whole, if we all work together, you know, we might not always agree on things, but if we all work together, it's better for the resource, which is number one, and it's better for hunting, you know, into the future, because we all want to leave here and leave it better than we found it, and that this, you know, this year was monumental. So let's just, let's switch over to some of the opportunities this fall when you look at what's included and what's not included, and then talk about, you know, when the calendar strikes 20, 26, and maybe a little bit of the whys, you know, because, you know, it wasn't included throughout the whole year. And there's a reason, and that's our main job as this agency is the resource.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: And knowing what the effects that another free day are going to. But, you know, talking about fall turkey season, Mary Jo got up there and the data that we have, which is, you know, tons of data on the resource, you know, fall turkey season is included this year. It is, and she made sure that. But let's talk about waterfowl, because waterfowl season, you know, it's. There's a lot of nuance to our waterfowl season in not just waterfowl. I'm sorry, Ian. Migratory game birds are not included in Sunday hunting. And a little bit of the why on that, Steve.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Yeah, great question. And it's something that I think myself included for a lot of hunters who aren't particularly waterfowl hunters, migratory game bird hunters that don't understand that nuance and how complicated it is because they are migratory birds. Therefore, they fall under the primary jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. And the US Fish and Wildlife Service gives states a set number of days when hunting for those species can occur.
So it's up to us as a state agency to decide what those days are. But you can't go beyond the date, the number of days that the Fish and Wildlife Service give you to work with. So when we, again, we Talked about a couple times already, but I'll keep coming back to it. When our board established seasons beginning of this year already, they did so not having the ability to implement Sundays. So they set a date range for that season that is the maximum number of days for which you can hunt migratory birds this year.
So if we were to then incorporate Sundays into that, it would exceed that date, the number of day allotment. So that executive order that I'm going to be signing regarding Sunday hunting this fall is going to exclude from that migratory game bird so that we don't go over the number of days that were provided to us from the Fish and Wildlife Service to operate around. Moving forward, though, that's when our board comes back in January and again in April, they're going to be able to incorporate Sundays. So they're going to be able to make those decisions about should we keep that same date range and just exclude Sundays, or should we shorten the date range and allow for Sunday? So, as you mentioned, it was something that we talked about at that board meeting. And I think our board is going to really be looking for feedback from waterfowl hunters, from migratory game bird hunters on what they would like to see that structure to be and how great is it that they can have those options now moving forward. That's completely different from how we've been able to operate before.
And our board is going to be looking for impact or input from migratory game bird hunters on what their preference is. Sure.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: And it's one of those things. We need to work together on this and encourage our hunters out there to talk to us about it. Because, I mean, a lot of folks think we don't think that. We don't listen. We listen.
We're just like you. I mean, we have opinions, too. I'm sure you've had opinions that in your career that then align with some of the decisions that are made.
We're just lucky to be here.
When I think about Sundays, I'm like, I can just remember growing up and like, I can't believe we're here. It's kind of still surreal. I'm sure it is for you as well.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: It absolutely is. And I think your point that we want to hear from our hunters is well taken. And as this bill went through the legislative process, the argument that really carried the day for why it should. It should go into effect and why the ban on Sunday hunting should be removed is what we're talking about.
We explained that what this bill would do would be it would allow our board to make decisions. They can take into consideration the biological data, but then they can also take into consideration the impact or the input from stakeholders. And then they can make seasons and make adjustments and incorporate Sundays where they see fit. And then year after year, continue to revisit it and decide and evaluate whether it was the right decision.
That's what the removal of Sunday hunting ban in the law does, is it gives the decision to our board, lets them take all the factors that they take into consideration and make the best decision. That's the freedom that now they have to operate. And again, it's going to be to the benefit of our hunters.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Sure. That that's a great. That's it in a nutshell. And you know, let's talk about two. You know, you said it before, but let's start. Let's talk about when it starts and when it ends one more time. And then there's a couple little caveats or things that we probably need to just discuss on ending dates of seasons.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: I'm really excited and excited about when it's going to begin. And this is no surprise to you because we've talked about in the past my affinity for squirrel hunting. So that first Sunday when it takes into effect is right after the squirrel season begins. I'm excited about that. I think it's great. I'm really excited to. I'm sure on social media we'll get pictures of parents and grandparents who took a youngster out squirrel hunting on that Sunday. I mean, how cool is that? That's the gateway to the future. We know that nothing creates lifelong hunters better than small game season. So I'm excited that it begins. Those opportunities there statewide in September, goes through to October for our archery hunters, into November for those archery hunters, as well as fall turkey, and then goes into rifle deer season. So those are the main seasons that are impacted. It's really the primary seasons that our hunters look forward to the most. Are going to have that option this fall for Sunday hunting.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: Absolutely. And then when you look at season end dates, you know, let's, you know, the biggest one that we can probably talk about is firearms deer season.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Firearms deer. Right.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: You know, the season structure, the season was set that it's going to end on a Saturday and it's still going to end on a Saturday.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: It is. That's right.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: And we need to make sure everybody knows that. I mean, that last Saturday of deer season is always kind of a sad moment in time, and it's still going to be that sad moment in time this year, but it will End on.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: A Saturday again, at least for this year. And our board has talked about maybe as they move forward, maybe that's a Sunday that they want to also add on top of the 13 that are in place for this year. They'll have that flexibility moving forward. So it's something that was talked about a lot and we'll see what they want to do with it next year. Again, it's going to change potentially a lot of things, one of which might be the end date for that season. So. So we'll see.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: And so next year, Sunday could be the sad day, potentially seasons.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah, potentially.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: And that's good. This is what, you know, everybody that's kind of freaking out. This was what we could get done this year. In January, we go to set 26, 27 seasons in bags. So not that long way. I mean, we're in August, we're well over halfway of the year. It won't be too long that we're back in the board meeting, setting next year's seasons to and by the signing of this bill, includes Sunday hunting. So, like next year could be is a whole different ballgame.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: And that's a great point because I and I explained this to the board and they completely understood and were expecting it. As is typically the case for us at the Game Commission, we're trying to find that right balance, right? And there are going to be some who say this wasn't enough. You should have gone all Sundays. And then there are going to be some who say this was too many. And we're trying to walk that line and get the right number for year one, knowing it could increase moving forward, it could decrease.
Everything's on the table.
But for year one, our board thought it was important to take a slow, incremental approach, but at the same time provide Sundays for the majority of the hunting season. So they're trying to strike that right balance. And come January and April, they'll evaluate it again, decide what they want to do for next year.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: That's how you make solutions when you can get in the middle and make things happen. And that's exactly what's happened. So, you know, there are some Sundays in this hunting season that were not chosen, you know, mainly after the holidays. And, you know, let's talk about that because I think it's important that that why those decisions and why we're making those decisions.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: If you look at after the end of firearms deer season and after Christmas, there's a new season essentially in place for this year. It's a firearms season for Deer on DMAP properties and particularly in the north, central and northwest DMAP properties make up a large amount of that land mass. There's.
That's a new season. We don't know what that impact is going to be. So my recommendation to the board was not to include Sundays for that season for this year just because we don't know. We have no data showing what that's going to look like. So I'd prefer that we have at least a year's worth of data before we talk about incorporating Sundays into that season.
Because. And we've talked about already, but because the digest is already printed, we didn't have the ability really to implement Sundays through a patchwork either. We didn't want to say no Sundays for that firearm DMAP season because we don't know what the impact is going to be. But we're going to allow Sundays for this species over here.
That would be difficult to communicate to our hunters. We wanted the message to be simple. Here's the Sundays when it's in place and it's for all species. We didn't want to break out certain species that are allowed for Sunday, certain species that aren't. And at the end of the day we came back to it's just more consistent, easy, understood message for our hunters to just identify the dates and say all Sunday hunting can take place on these Sundays, period. So that's the approach that we took from a simplicity standpoint for messaging. Again, as we move forward and can incorporate them through the normal seasons and bag process, we'll have the extra benefit of having the digest in hunter's hands. So if we need to separate out seasons, if we need to do it differently and say this season can there will be Sunday hunting, this there will not. Again, I'm not saying for sure we'll go that route, but if we need to, the digest is the opportunity to communicate that. And we didn't have that in our favor this year. So that's why the board followed our recommendation to cut it off there after general firearm season for this year.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: And it's our responsibility to look at that data that we're going to capture this year.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: In that new season. And, you know, look at those opportunities that happen after we flip the calendar.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Again, this is, you know, this is year one that happened in mid to late summer that gave us this ability and to get 10 additional Sundays throughout the popular fall seasons for all species that are in, with the exception of.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Waterfowl, migratory game bird.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Which includes doves a lot of folks.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: That's why I wanted to throw that in there.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Doves are a migratory game bird. There's no Sunday hunting allowed. So, you know, here's a big one for, for even for us is spring gobbler season. And, you know, obviously we'd all love to have that opportunity right out of the gate, but, you know, us as turkey hunters, too, again, we have to look at the resource and what can happen. And in this year, in this upcoming spring, in 2026, Sundays will not be included in any of spring gobbler season.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. And as a, as a parent and as a turkey hunter, I'll be honest, my. One of my priorities was to get Sunday hunting into that spring gobbler season for that junior season. This year was a perfect example. Right. It rained on Saturday, woke up Sunday, and it was beautiful. And I, you know, that just hit me in the gut because I would have much rather have been out there with my son on a beautiful Sunday morning. So my first thought was, well, we're going to have to be able to implement Sundays for spring gobbler season, especially that youth season.
But when we talk to our biologist, there's concerns about what that impact would be of, of a Sunday, because we know it's going to be a high participation day. And we know, and it's fascinating to look at the biology behind it, how important the timing of that season is, because you don't want to disrupt that breeding cycle too early. If you do, you know, that window when hens need to be bred and nested is interrupted. It affects everything. It affects, you know, when those chicks are coming out and are pulled and has so many impacts downstream that that timing really matters. And the timing of the participation and the harvest really matters. And there's concerns about if we were to add that Sunday in that late April time frame, that what that harvest would be. Pennsylvania, even though we only have that one day, junior season, we're still harvesting around 3,000 birds.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Our kids are doing, getting it done. I mean, it's a lot. It's more than any other state with.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Two, with two days, with two days of season.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: And that figure blew my mind.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: It did for us, too, when we saw that and realized what the impact would be.
You know, we don't want to take chances with a species. We don't want to take chances with turkey. We don't want to, you know, throw it out there and see what happens and hope it's to the best.
My message, and this is Something our board feels strongly as well is we're going to err on the side of caution. We're going to err on the side of the resource. And if our biologist is telling us that she has concerns that opening that season on a Sunday too soon in that season was going to have an impact, then we have a responsibility. As much as we would love to see it as a hunter, we have a responsibility to say we're going to follow your recommendation and we're not going to make any changes this year. Again, that's for this year. And I really encourage everybody to listen to that board meeting because there was a really good discussion with one of our commissioners. And I don't think there's a bigger turkey hunter than Commissioner Bob Shawlum, who.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Actually missed two turkeys this spring.
I think it was two, wasn't it?
[00:27:07] Speaker A: That was Matt who said that. I just want to be clear.
And he is right there with us. He wanted to see that junior season as well.
But when he saw that data, understood the impact and realized her concerns, he had a good dialogue with her about, well, are there changes that we can make to the season moving forward? Are there things like looking at that second spring gobbler tag that we could potentially take off the table to allow for Sundays to take place? And they had a good conversation about it, knowing that we won't be able to make any of those changes for until the 27 season. But we're already thinking about it. And again, that's what this legislation allows. It allows our board to talk to our biologists, to listen to hunters and figure out the best path moving forward. So I thought it was a great conversation and I think they're going to continue it because we want to provide opportunities. We just want to do it in a right way that doesn't impact the resource.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: And when you look at the country with wild turkeys, there's a lot of questions. I mean, a lot of places their population are, you know, heading downwards a little bit after reintroduction. Lots of things going on. But we're also in the middle of the biggest turkey study in our history as an agency with. With a lot of that information and data coming in, too. It's taken a hard look and I've, you know, obviously got a lot of turkey hunting buddies have been texting and asking, and I tell them all, I'm like, you got to think of it like this. Sundays that happen in turkey season, it's like opening it up in an additional week.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: And with that additional week, everybody the majority of the folks are free and have the time to go. So we really have to look at it as a balance and, and we all care about everything out there, but, you know, we have to think about the resource first. And like you said, we're going to take a look at it come January.
You know, don't. Don't go guns loaded and think that this isn't going to be looked at hard. And we want to make sure that we can incorporate some Sundays down the road in all these seasons. I mean, our goal is to look at opportunities as all of us as hunters.
To me, our biggest role now is to make sure we're passing it on. And, you know, this with Sunday hunting, it gives us a whole nother option to pass it on to somebody else.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. Well said. I think it would have been irresponsible just to say Sunday hunting now means 52 weeks of Sundays, and we'll just figure out the impact later. That's not the approach that we wanted to take. We want to phase it in. We want to do so in a way that really incorporates what's the best for the resource, what's the best for the hunters, and then measure that impact and then make decisions incrementally moving forward. And that's the approach we're going to take.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Right. You know, and for more information, like, if y' all want to, you know, get on our website, we have a Sunday hunting landing page that answers a lot of these questions. You know, there's. There's still tons of questions out there. You know, one being, like, written permission. You know, when we got the three Sundays, written permission was mandatory, and I assume it's still that way now to hunt on private property on Sundays.
You know, again, we're a state that's very lucky to have the public hunting opportunities that we do. But if you're hunting on private, written permission is a must.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: It is, and that's a good point to bring up an extra part of that bill. An additional part of that bill was it increased the penalties for trespass. And I talked about how we developed a pretty broad coalition to make this happen. And part of that coalition was the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. And they were great allies in this, but they have always, up until now, been resistant to this because they were concerned about trespass, they were concerned about the impacts on their properties. You know, a lot of hunting in Pennsylvania takes place on those private farms, and they were concerned about what it means for them.
So they included one of the provision included. And we were happy to See it in there. That increased the penalties for trespass, because our hunters should know they have a responsibility to know where they are at all times. And also part of the legislation is continuing that requirement that if you're hunting on private land on Sunday, you need that written permission. I think it's great for our hunters to keep those things in mind because this, again, this was a part of a coalition. The Farm Bureau provided their support. So we have an obligation to make sure that we're respecting those landowner. Landowner rights.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: Awesome. So we kind of hit on this. I'm gonna let you take it out of here with this message and any message you have to our hunters out there. And we hit on this a lot through the podcast. But, you know, what will Sunday hunting look like for 26, 27, if you had a crystal ball? I know. No promises. And this is a tough one. I know.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: I think what it's going to look like is a lot more opportunities than we've ever had before. I think I can say that confidently. It's going to mean opportunities for hunters of all ages to get out to experience hunting in Pennsylvania. And for. I've had so many hunters come up to me, and we just had the Elk Expo a couple. A couple weeks ago.
So many hunters came up to me then, and it meant a lot. It's just saying thank you for this, because now you doubled the amount of time that I'm going to be out this year. Next year, moving forward, you double the amount of time that I can get my kids out. I mean, that's what it's all about. So what it means moving forward is more hunters, more opportunities for our hunters than we've ever had before.
And I'll again refer back to our board meeting and Commissioner Schwalm, where he said, hey, let's make sure we're doing this right for our three for hunter recruitment, retention and reactivation, because that's what it's all about.
Our mission is to manage wildlife on behalf of current generations and future generations. I think what's so exciting about Sunday hunting is it checks both those boxes. It allows our hunters today to get out more, but it also allows them to bring that next generation and get them out more than ever before. So that's why we're so excited. That's why it was worth all the work that went into it. And I can't wait to see the results.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Yep, I agree 100%. Well, Steve, thank you for coming on and thank you for all your hard work. And I have a good old turkey hunting buddy that happens to be a country singer and his song, that's what I love About Sundays. I'm going to call him today and see if we can use that somewhere on our social media page, because, I mean, that's what it's all about. And what an exciting time to be here and work for the agency and watch everything that's happening. And to all our hunters out there, stay tuned and take someone else out there this year to enjoy the woods and you're going to be able to do it on a Sunday. Thanks for tuning in to call the outdoors and we'll see you out there in the woods on a Sunday this fall.
