Pennsylvania Mixed Bag: Sundays for regulated hunting grounds

Harrisburg — With the former prohibition on Sunday hunting now removed from Pennsylvania law, Sundays can be included within hunting seasons.

But on regulated hunting grounds, privately owned hunting properties that follow separate regulations, Sunday hunting remains prohibited in commercial areas. That could be changing.

Pennsylvania game commissioners at their Jan. 24 meeting voted preliminarily to lift the Sunday hunting prohibition that applies to commercial regulated hunting grounds. The measure will be brought back to the April meeting for a final vote.

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New Options for Trappers Considered

Harrisburg — Pennsylvania trappers could have some new options in targeting specific furbearers, based on a measure preliminarily approved by game commissioners at their recent meeting.

The board voted preliminarily to increase the maximum size for body-gripping traps used for beavers and river otters to 14 inches in width or height, whichever is greater, from one jaw to the opposing jaw when set. Presently, body-gripping traps used for beavers or river otters can be no larger than 10 inches high and 12 inches wide.

The board also voted to preliminarily approve the use of snap traps, within an enclosure, outside a water course, for weasel trapping. Both of these measures will be brought back to the April meeting for a final vote and possible adoption.

Adjusted Game Lands Regs Considered

Harrisburg — Pennsylvania game commissioners gave preliminary approval at their recent meeting here to two changes that would affect some non-hunting users of state game lands.

Non-hunters long have been allowed to ride non-motorized vehicles, conveyances and animals as authorized on game lands at certain times of year. That would continue under the proposed change, and the span within which these activities are prohibited would be roughly the same – from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, and from April 1 through May 31.

The biggest difference would be these closed-activity periods that mirror peak periods for hunting would include Sundays, as well. Presently, non-hunting riding on game lands can occur on Sundays within the otherwise closed periods, though the regulation predates Sunday hunting becoming law in Pennsylvania.

The second change involves a similar span of dates within which non-hunting game lands users must wear either a fluorescent orange hat or 250 square inches of fluorescent orange on the head, chest and back combined, visible from 360 degrees.

The measure approved will be brought back to the April meeting for a final vote.

Elk Application Could Become Simpler

Harrisburg — Game commissioners at their recent meeting gave preliminary approval to changes that would provide for a simplified elk license application structure, which would consolidate any bonus points hunters have accumulated since 2003.

Pennsylvania elk licenses are awarded through a random drawing of applicants. A hunter can submit an application, and if not drawn for a license, will receive a bonus point. Then, the next time the hunter submits an application, they not only have one chance to draw a license, but an additional chance for each bonus point they’ve received.

Under the proposal, hunters would retain the bonus points they’ve collected over the years. Hunters would submit only one application per year, instead of one application for every elk season in which they want to participate, so all bonus points would be consolidated.

The changes preliminarily approved by the board will be brought back to the April meeting for a final vote.

PGC Reviews its CWD Regulations

Harrisburg — The Game Commission is considering changing some of its regulations regarding chronic wasting disease to better protect the state’s white-tailed deer and simultaneously help hunters.

If the changes are adopted, hunters no longer would be prohibited from transporting harvested deer – including high-risk deer parts – between any two locations. But hunters statewide would be required to dispose of high-risk deer parts through their commercial trash pickup, and expressly prohibited from disposing of high-risk parts on the landscape.

Other changes include eliminating the regulatory prohibition on the use of cervid urine-based attractants in any outdoor setting – state law already has been changed to make these attractants legal – and providing the commission’s executive director with the discretionary authority to establish targeted restrictions on feeding deer in relation to CWD.

Southeast Baiting Requirements May Change

Harrisburg — In the Southeast Special Regulations Area, where it’s legal for deer hunters to use bait on private land, the Game Commission has proposed changes intended to make hunters more effective in harvesting deer, while simultaneously simplifying the rules.

Presently, deer hunters in that area may use bait on private or municipal property. The bait used must be limited to shelled corn or protein pellet supplements distributed through an approved feeder, with no two bait sites closer than 250 yards apart.

The proposed regulations would eliminate the minimum distance between bait sites, allow bait to be distributed via feeder or just placed on the ground, and expand the list of allowable bait to include apples and natural agricultural products intended for human or livestock consumption.