The magazine also was featuring occasional interior splashes of color in titles and illustration, an editorial adjustment that began in the September 1968 issue. The first pages to receive that splash of green ink appropriately were in Ned Smith's enduring column Gone for the Day. Ol' Ruff never looked better against a dogwood backdrop. During the '70s, the Game Commission invested considerable resources in big game management. Pennsylvania black bears underwent some of the most extensive research any species had received to date in the Commonwealth. Concern for bruins by the start of the decade had reached critical mass; the annual hunting season for bears would close three times during the 1970s. Game News went to great lengths to keep everyone up to speed on what was going on in bear management. The magazine became the primary means for popularizing and disseminating bear-management news. Uneasiness about elk also led to increased fieldwork and management attention in the '70s. It was a point in time where the Game Commission refocused on Pennsylvania's dwindling elk herd and spent the next quartercentury or so enhancing and modifying the elk-management program with substantial assistance from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Today, elk inhabit the state in larger numbers than in any time in the past 150 years. As the Game Commission closed in on its 80th birthday in 1975, scientific wildlife management was overtaking the barnyard management styles that had buoyed the agency's efforts since the close of the 19th century. Pole traps finally were banned. All hawks and owls were protected. Discussions to AUGUST 2015 close the waterfowl and turkey farms gathered steam. And creation of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey started a more thorough assessment of the species that comprised the state's fauna and flora. Game News and wildlife management were moving forward. Times were good. Technology Advances The Game Commission was only months away from celebrating its 100th anniversary as the 750th issue rolled off the presses in September 1994. A curious black bear staring through a window graced the cover painting Gerald Putt's first cover featured a peregrine falcon in hot pursuit of a wood duck on this October 1981 cover. 7