Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Our ability to manage wildlife is tied to having that hunter base there available to do so. So that next generation is going to be there to further all the work that we've been doing and previous generations have done. And we need to be able to pass that on.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: When you think about the future, we're not going to be here forever. And it's important that we pass it on. It really is.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: I'll refer to it as kind of the traditional proposal with the current structure as it's been in place for the past couple of years, and then this new one.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to Call of the Outdoors, the podcast of the Pennsylvania.
We have some very exciting news. This is a special edition. We're on the heels of our January board meeting where we set seasons and bags and really set the year for the next hunting license year. And our executive director, Steve Smith is joining us today with some very exciting news and an update for next week's board meeting. Well, Steve, we have a big meeting coming up next week and, you know, we obviously, let's, let's just dive right into it, start talking about what's going to happen here in about a week.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Yeah, as you said, it's going to be a big meeting. And this is the January meeting for our board of commissioners. And one thing, Matt, I think we've covered in a couple of previous podcasts and really appreciate how focused you have been on getting the word out. And the understanding is that process that we go through when it comes to setting regulations, specifically seasons and bag limits, and that's a two step process, but it begins in January. So as you said, next week is going to be that first meeting in which our board's going to look at some proposals for when to start seasons, what the bag limit should be, et cetera. And it's going to be in prep for the next hunting license year. Yeah.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: And, you know, it's hard sometimes, even like I can remember my past, we didn't understand how it works. So anything that happens in the January meeting is preliminary. I mean, it doesn't get finalized till April. But that's why we're here. We're here to talk about, you know, a specific issue. You know, a lot of great things happened last year. You know, Sunday hunting we had for the first time this fall. And as we go into, you know, the 26, 27 hunting season, we got to, you know, look at Sundays throughout the whole season. But let's just dive right into, you know, what we're here to talk about.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Sure. That is a big Part of it, certainly. And I think you're, you're spot on. It's been something that has been exciting for our hunters and it's a big part of what we've been doing. But as we're kind of alluding to that, that's not the only potential change on the horizon. So as our board comes in the next week, they're going to have a proposal in front of them.
Well, really two proposals. One is going to deal with the start of firearms deer season. And it's going to be that traditional time period when the season has started of latent of the past couple decades, which is after Thanksgiving, specifically the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That's going to be one proposal that the board's going to have.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: That's the way it currently season is set, correct?
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Yep, correct. Another proposal that the board is going to have would start the season a week earlier.
So instead of starting it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the board is going to have a proposal that would start it on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
A change like that, as you can imagine, there's several other changes associated with it, species that are impacted. So it's going to be a full slate of options for the board to consider that the premise is moving that first day or first week for firearms deer season.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that is a big one.
And you know, everybody, we have our personal opinions on, you know, we all do. But you know, when we're as an agency, you know, we're out there and serving the people and the resource. And I think it's important that we're out here today talking about this and getting out there a week before.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's wildlife management. There's that social component to it as well. We, we have to manage the wildlife in the state and do it responsibly. And to do that we need hunters. And that means setting a season at a time that convenient for them and that increases the participation because that then allows us to manage the wildlife. So all those things are absolutely connected.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: And before, you know, obviously this is going to go up on our social channels and you know, before, obviously feel free to comment and it's going to happen. It's going to start that. But really, if you have a comment and you want to get in front of the board, there's a few ways to do that. And we have some time for you to do that if you want to, you know, voice your concerns, voice your support, however it is, we want to hear from you.
We have a mechanism to get, get to the board with your comments through Our website.
Our website is pa.govpgc contact us. You can get right to the board there with a comment. And I'm sure you would encourage folks to come to the public comment section of the meeting.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. And that's why we're doing this today. Right. That's why we're getting the word out ahead of time.
We want people to think about it, to consider what we're asked, going to put in front of our board.
Think about what would work for them. Think about what would work in particular for that younger hunter that they know what would work. What's more convenient for that son or daughter who might be in high school, might be in college, might have just started a job.
Think about how we can. Again, I'll go back to increase participation because that's what we're trying to do through our seasons. So think about it. And then as you said, there's plenty of options to make your voice heard and that's part of the process. That's why we're announcing this here today. That's why our press release is going out. We want the public to and our hunters to see what the board is going to be considering and then to give their thoughts on if this is the right direction.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: And basically, you know, making our hunters and constituents aware of what's going on is our purpose. But you can tune in. Our board meeting is live streamed on YouTube and you can tune in and watch what happens.
It's pretty exciting times really. I mean, when you really think about it. I mean, it's a big change and, and that's proposed and it's exciting. I mean, this is kind of the first day that I've heard about it and my wheels are spinning personally. And you know, obviously everybody has an opinion and we do want to hear from you.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah, we do. And it is. I fully understand, as you said, the wheels are turning. It's a lot to process, to think about. This is would be a new approach to when to start the season. And if you look at why even bring it forward, then if we are talking about such a significant change, we see potential benefits. You know, I talked about the importance of thinking about, you know, that son or daughter is in college, high school, if you look, we know a lot of colleges, a lot of schools give most, if not all of that week off for Thanksgiving. So there's a potential opportunity for getting those younger hunters out during that weekend when the season starts. Maybe they have class on a Monday or Tuesday, but then have the rest of that week off. So just Again, increases an opportunity to potentially increase participation. And that's really important to us. Another potential benefit, I'll say, is we have heard from hunters and you mentioned how, how easy it is, and that's an important thing to, to comment to the Game Commission and our hunters do. And we've heard from hunters that with the Thanksgiving holiday being so close there to when the season has started over the past couple years, it's difficult to do all make all the preparations that they need to make to have the kind of season that they want. And for a lot of our hunters, you know, that means traveling. It might mean, you know, across the state or even just to the next town layover. But there is for some hunters that travel associated with it.
Here's an opportunity to take a look at structuring the season where not having that Thanksgiving so close to the start of the season might alleviate some of those concerns and might make it easier for individuals to travel to where they need to be to hunt. So that's part of the reason that we're taking a look at that, both of those factors increasing that participation for those younger hunters, but also potentially making it easier to get to where you need to go to hunt.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: You know, for years we've all seen, I mean, no matter if you watch TV hunting shows on TV or YouTube, you know, everybody out there, we're preaching it like we need to take somebody hunting or you need to get more people involved. And it's time as hunters across the country, no matter where you're at, it's probably the most important thing that we can talk about. And giving folks that are new to the sport that opportunity is the most important, one of the most important things we can think of as an agency, as a hunter, no matter what, when you think about the future, we're not going to be here forever. And it's important that we pass it on.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: It really is very well said. I think from an agency's perspective, it's the most important thing that we can be doing is making sure we're laying that groundwork for that future hunter base, which is how we manage wildlife in Pennsylvania. Those things are critically connected. Our ability to manage wildlife is tied to having that hunter base there available to do so. So that next generation is going to be there to further all the work that we've been doing and previous generations have done, and we need to be able to pass that on.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Well, Steve, obviously in the proposal that's going forward with the Saturday pre Thanksgiving, there's some seasons that will be affected if we can just like kind of hit the high levels on those.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Not affected, but changed.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: There would be. And bear and fall turkey are the two that come to mind for this proposal that the board's going to consider the pre Thanksgiving start date. It would mean moving up the bear firearms season a week as well.
With that potential change, there comes the potential for increased harvest of sows.
Sows usually den first and that season being later in November means that the majority of sows have denned up by the time that firearm season starts.
To adjust for that, what the proposal includes would be to reduce some of the earlier seasons, the October seasons for bear, the archery season, the muzzleloader season, the special firearm season.
Our recommendation would be to reduce those to a weekend to two days in October.
Those seasons, as you probably remember, are relatively new. They were adopted within the past decade in response to high level bear complaints areas. And the board has been pulling back on those seasons over the past couple of years. They have shortened them. This would just be a step further and reducing them even more. But by doing so that would protect potential sow harvest which then would allow for an earlier regular firearm season. So that's probably the most significant change would be the impact of bear seasons for fall turkey.
Majority of it would stay the same, but there'd be a few units that would see a potential decrease of a couple days.
There's a few units that have that Thanksgiving season.
Obviously if firearms deer season is taking place, there wouldn't be that option to have that three day season during that Thanksgiving time period. So there'd be some adjustments. And I think that's important to note is none of this would happen in isolation. There'd be other effects down the road. And we've thought through them and our biologists have prepared recommendations based on them. And that's going to be part of the agenda that's on our website for the people to review. And we certainly want that to be part of the conversation.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Again, I just want to reiterate because this is preliminary, this is a proposal.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: It is.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: And they have two proposals on how this is going to happen in front of them.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: That's right. There's going to be. I'll refer to it as kind of the traditional proposal with the current structure as it's been in place for the past couple of years, and then this new one which would move that firearms deer season to before Thanksgiving and then several other species impacted by it.
That's what we're laying out for the board to consider when they come in next week and take a look at what those seasons should be for this next year.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: From myself and all of us at the agency, we appreciate us getting out in front of this. We're excited to see what happens next week.
Again, if you want to comment where it's social media isn't monitored by our board, obviously there's going to be lots of comments, but I would encourage anybody again to contact us through our website, pa.govpgc and there's, you know, contact us. You can get right to our board. If you feel strong enough on your opinion, you want to come to the meeting. The public comment section opens at 8:30am on Saturday, January 24th. I would be expecting probably a large crowd there, but that's why we're there. That's why we're, you know, these meetings happen four times a year.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah, there always is. Right. Like our hunters are passionate about these issues. So you're absolutely right. Go to our website, find out how to contact us, go through those steps and take a look at the proposal and it'll be right there in black and white on our website. This is what the board's gonna look at. This is what the season date would look like because there are some other species that are impacted and then have an open mind toward it. And we want to hear from our hunters then on how they feel about it.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we understand that not everybody's a deer hunter too. So, you know, everything has been looked at, I would assume in that package. So. Great. Well, thank you, Steve, for joining us this morning. And you know, thank you for folks for tuning in on this special edition of Call the Outdoors. It's rather short, but we'll hopefully we see and hear from you all next week.
