Jeff Mulhollem

We’ve been asked several times recently for an update on the Game Commission’s campaign to reintroduce pine martens in the state. Seems like the commissioners who tabled the motion don’t want to discuss it further.
Perhaps they are respecting the wishes of a clear majority of our readers who don’t want to see another predator released here.

Five months after the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s former executive director was lectured by state senators in a hearing about the agency having too much state game land, the agency announced in July it was adding more than 5,000 acres to the nearly 1.6 million acres it controls.
I always thought adding to the game lands was a good thing. But I’ll won’t forget Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-Butler, Clarion, Erie, Forest, Venango and Warren counties, saying the following at the Feb. 8 hearing:
“It’s a philosophical question – if you have fewer hunters and you keep increasing the amount of land, that doesn’t jive, it just doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Like in Pennsylvania, Michigan’s leaders are having trouble attracting enough people to fill critical roles to protect society, so they have come up with a novel idea. A lawmaker there has introduced a bill to give first responders and prison guards free hunting and fishing licenses.
Wonder if that approach might help persuade more folks to be volunteer firefighters here? We have a critical shortage.