Due to Sunday hunting, Pennsylvania agency adjusts game lands regulations

Harrisburg — The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners at their April 11 meeting adopted two changes that will 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 will continue, and the span within which these activities are prohibited is roughly the same – from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, and from April 20 through May 31.

The biggest difference is these closed-activity periods that mirror peak periods for hunting now include Sundays, as well.

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Previously, non-hunting riding on game lands could occur on Sundays within the otherwise-closed periods, though the former regulation predated 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.

That span also is from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, and April 20 through May 31, promoting improved safety as well as consistency.

Along with hunters and trappers who are actively engaged in lawful hunting and trapping and might not need orange, anglers who are lawfully fishing also are exempted from orange requirements during these spans.