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FeedWhen will hunters end the ridiculous banter about deer harvest reporting?
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I have hunted for nearly 50 years and have sent in a harvest report card for every deer, buck or doe that I have ever harvested in Pennsylvania. I wish every hunter would do the same. Our current statewide reporting rate of less than 40 percent is a sad commentary on hunters.
With that said, I know that 100 percent reporting will never happen. Although I’m unhappy with the low reporting rate, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the number is large enough estimate the actual deer harvest. Looking at the math, I see no problem with the agency calculating (oh, my goodness – yes - calculating) the harvest from the data that it collects. If more people reported – they certainly would have more accurate estimates, but the reported numbers are adequate to measure what needs to be measured.
I’m sure that some well-meaning hunters just forget to report their kills, don’t want to be bothered, or maybe they just don’t think that it is anybody’s business. So why am I concerned about this? I suspect that some non-reporting hunters – and they are hunters, not sportsmen – don’t report because they might be out there attempting to shoot a second buck -- an illegal deer. Reporting their first kill would make it easier for the PGC to ferret out their illegal activity.
I do think that it is the Game Commission’s job to make reporting as easy as possible and I think that it has done that. Hunters have three ways to report – by postpaid card, telephone and Internet. Could it be any easier?
What about “mandatory reporting” with fines and license revocations attached? It was so refreshing to read editor Jeff Mulhollem’s front-page article in the July 6, 2012, issue of Pennsylvania Outdoor News. I thought that the people interviewed by Mulhollem did an excellent job of explaining why this just isn’t possible. I hope that everyone takes the time to read this article.
One small mistake there at the end in your summary Mark. Nobody explained "why it just isnt possible". Because it is NOT "impossible" and that was not shown in any way to be the case in the article. Some excuse making for decisions NOT to go that route... But far from showing it to be "impossible".
To answer you question, Mark...they won't.
It's not impossible, I've lived and hunted out west where reporting fish catches and big game harvest are mandatory and come with a fine the next time a man or women purchases there next year's license. Seemed to work good out there, why exactly couldn't it work in PA???
Because PA has 700,000 deer hunters who would need to report 1.5 million tags. How many did you have out west? There aren't as many logistical issues when you're not dealing with as many people and tags.
Combined deer, elk and bear hunting licenses equal 246,533 sold, however this is not included big horn sheep, moose, mountain goat, spring bear, turkey, cougar and small game permits in-which all have to be reported at the end of the season. Moving on, fishing, reporting is huge, way bigger than PA hunting numbers will ever be... I only pulled numbers on a few species as a sample. 640,893 licenses sold with salmon permits, with every angler sending in a report. Individuals with clamming permits reported 3,783,000 clams harvested during the season. They may not sell as many hunting licenses out there but everything taken out of the wild is reported to the fish and game commission therefore I would say they have a much bigger logistical issue then PA's 1.5M tags to be reported on. In my opinion to say it's not possible is just wrong, it is very possible and done in other states! PGC really doesn't want it probably for political reasons, they would rather use a statistical formula to estimate deer harvest. Statistics work to a certain degree of error, that is mathematically proven but close to 100% reporting would be better. I think the only way to get there would be a monetary fine, because it is easy enough already and over 60 percent of PA hunters don't report. PGC should try something different if they really want different results.
"Combined deer, elk and bear hunting licenses equal 246,533 sold, however this is not included big horn sheep, moose, mountain goat, spring bear, turkey, cougar and small game permits in-which all have to be reported at the end of the season."
PA has 700,000 deer hunters...that's JUST deer hunters, if you want to throw in all other species, we're talking about close to 1,000,000 hunters and trappers the state would need to keep track of. The PGC does not have enough wildlife law enforcement to do that (maybe a couple hundred WCOs if that). A couple hundred guys covering 46,055 sq miles of area with 700,000 hunters doesn't cut the mustard. Most hunters are on the "honor" system.
"640,893 licenses sold with salmon permits, with every angler sending in a report."
Do you really believe that every angler sends in a report? Just because they are supposed to, doesn't mean they do.
" Individuals with clamming permits reported 3,783,000 clams harvested during the season"
How many individuals are collecting those clams? 3,783,000 clams means nothing without know how many individuals we're talking about. Compliance is a measurement of the number of people who obey the law, not a measurement of how many of a particular species were harvested.
"I think the only way to get there would be a monetary fine"
PA does have a monetary fine, it's just not strongly enforced. There's not enough personnel in the enforcement agency to monitor 700,000 hunters. They have tried methods of enforcing it and it caused more headaches and was a bigger financial burden than it was worth. (http://www.outdoornews.com/July-2012/Harvest-reporting-flap-No-big-deal/)
"PGC should try something different if they really want different results."
They've tried all kinds of different things. Their primary tactic now is educating hunters on the importance of reporting their harvest. In the mean time, they're going to stick to the formulas.
My point was that they track and report every living thing taken out of the wild which is a huge task but they do it successfully. If an angler or hunter does not send in their report and they go to buy a license the next year they pay an additional fee or they don't get a license... In PA we are only trying to track deer harvest to get doe tags correctly allocated, which a computerized reporting program could track and analyze the data for us! In my opinion if other states can do it so could we if we wanted to, it is possible with the technology that is out there today. I agree to disagree with you on this portion of the topic! However, I totally agree with you that hunters need to report their harvest, it's really easy and takes only a couple minutes of your time.
Daveyak - I don't disagree with you that the technology exists, because it's definitely there! It exists and its being used today to help figure out the reporting rates are in each WMU. My argument is that its a lot easier to get compliance with the law when you don't have near as many hunters to deal with. I actually like the idea of disallowing hunters from getting a license or paying a fine if they don't report their harvest, and have suggested that idea before right here on this website. But what I didn't take into account is that in order to do that you need to be able to prove 100% beyond a doubt that they didn't even try to report. Unfortunately, things get lost in the mail and technology is prone to glitches, so if somebody wants to contest, it's hard to prove that they didn't at least give an honest try. If even 1 person contests, the human resources involved to process that case would be far greater than the fine itself.
Additionally, if you present someone with a fine, they may choose not to purchase a license, and that's one less license sold. If you take away their license for a year, then you're definitely not going to sell the license. License sales are at all time lows without these deterrents, so I can only imagine what they would be with them. What's more important, keeping license sales high and hunters in the woods, or squeaking out an extra 5% of accuracy out of the estimated harvest?
We can agree to disagree, I'm fine with that. Take care and good luck hunting this season!
I'm with you Yak: The first thing the PGC needs to do is eliminate the mail-in report cards, that will eliminate the "lost in the mail" excuse.
Nothing will work though untill all tags must be reported whether you harvest a deer or not. I believe it should be done for more reasons than just having a more accurate harvest count.
Deer Hunter
"The first thing the PGC needs to do is eliminate the mail-in report cards, that will eliminate the "lost in the mail" excuse."
NY did this a few years back and the reporting rate went from about 60% to 45% almost immediately and has persisted at that level ever since.