Notes off a soiled cuff: Should kids under age 7 really get tags under Pennsylvania’s Mentored Hunting Program?

Pennsylvania Game commissioners, at their recent quarterly meeting, voted preliminarily to give all mentored hunters – including those under 7 years old – deer harvest tags. But there was disagreement on the board and the vote was 6-3.

Commissioner Dennis Fredericks, who was in the minority, explained why he voted “no,” sounding a little like our letter writers.

“Our family has very much enjoyed the mentor program, but I’m not convinced that exposing these kids at an early, early age is the right thing to do for them psychologically,” he said.

“From what I’ve seen and heard from other people that I’ve talked to – and believe me, I’ve spent a lot of time in the southwestern part of the state talking to hunters – and to be honest with you, I could not find one person who’s in favor of this regulation as proposed, where the age limit drops to zero.”

Fredericks pointed out that the commission’s game wardens don’t support giving very young children deer tags, presumably because photos of four-year-olds posing with downed deer on social media makes hunters and the agency look bad.

“I think we have the best law enforcement people in the country, and I have made it my business to talk to all of my wildlife conservation officers – I refused to call them game wardens – and I talked to the sergeants and I’ve talked to the regional supervisors … and there’s just no support for the regulation as it’s written here to drop the age.”

The commissioners have to OK the change at another meeting for it to be a regulation. I think they should call it “tags for tots.”

MORE COVERAGE FROM PENNSYLVANIA OUTDOOR NEWS:

Invasive flathead catfish now the apex predator in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River

Pennsylvania Game Commission tracking EHD spread across state

All mentored hunters under age 7 may get tags

* We lost one of the very best journalists covering the outdoors Aug. 28 when Ad Crable died. He was 72. You’ve seen his stories on these pages more than a few times. He was outdoor editor for the Lancaster New Era for decades and more recently a feature writer for Chesapeake Bay Journal.

During much of that time, he handled free-lance assignments for publications I’ve edited, and I came to regard him as one of the very best news writers focusing on the outdoors in the business. He was one of very few capable of covering hunting and fishing issues, environmental controversies, agriculture public policy making, and he had a knack for writing about nature, science and our sports.

He was a talented professional storyteller with uncommon skill and integrity whom I greatly respected. I knew I could always rely on him. He was my friend – I miss him.

– We’ve had some feedback on our story on the front page of the last issue, headlined, “Making a Hunting Video? On Public Land, Hit Pause?” Like us, readers are amazed that state and federal agencies say they have policies requiring permits for making and marketing such productions – but can’t articulate them. In some cases, there are even so-far-unspecified fees involved.

Talked with one reader who seemed frustrated with me because I couldn’t provide more information. I assured him – and I want to tell you – the problem is with the government agencies, not us. Seems like they see it as an undeveloped revenue stream, but they obviously haven’t thought it through. Seems greedy to me …

– The Boone and Crockett Club recently announced the findings of a comprehensive study on poaching in this country. The research determined that only about 5% of poaching incidents are detected, leaving a stunning 95% that are either undetected or unreported nationally.

I asked the Game Commission whether its law enforcement experts thought that sobering figure held true in Pennsylvania, or whether it was worse or better. On short notice, they couldn’t say.