Pennsylvania Game News - April 2018 - 48

JANUARY COMMISSIONERS MEETING

Somerset WPRA soon could be dissolved
The Pennsylvania Board of
Game Commissioners in January
voted preliminarily to dissolve the
Somerset Wild Pheasant Recovery
Area (WPRA), one of the state's
four WPRAs.
The Somerset WPRA was created
by the Game Commission in 2009.
Like other WPRAs, it was selected
because its habitat gave pheasants
the greatest chance to establish wild
populations.
The Somerset WPRA received
964 trapped-and-transferred wild
pheasants over three years, but
surveys showed that the Somerset
WPRA's population failed to take
hold.
Habitat conditions, weather
severity, or a combination of these
factors, impeded the chances of
achieving a sustainable pheasant
population on the WPRA.
A final vote on the proposal will
be taken at the commissioner's next
quarterly meeting.
If the WPRA is dissolved, it will
be reopened to either-sex pheasant
hunting and will be eligible for
game-farm pheasant releases.

Other meeting highlights
* Falconry examinations will be administered
year-round, by appointment at Game Commission
regional offices. Previously, exams needed to be
scheduled and completed between Jan. 1 and June
30. The board said expanding the exam schedule
provides additional opportunity for applicants.
* Managed dove fields could be coming to
Pennsylvania. The commissioners at their January
meeting gave preliminary approval to a proposal
that would allow hunting mourning doves on fields
manged for doves, where grain or other feed has
been scattered, solely as a result of manipulation
of an agricultural crop or other feed where grown.
The proposal is scheduled for a final vote at the
April 24 meeting.
* The board gave final approval to creation of
a Disabled Person Access Permit, which allows
mobility-challenged game-lands users to use ATVs,
golf carts and other mobility devices on designated
routes on game lands.
This permit will be free, and separate from the
existing permit that allows disabled persons to hunt
from motorized vehicles and ATVs. The measure
also establishes that hunters in wheelchairs are
free to traverse anywhere on game lands where
pedestrian foot travel is authorized.
* The board reorganized for 2018, selecting
Commissioner Timothy Layton was appointed
the board's president, Commissioner James Daley
as the board's vice president, and Commissioner
Stanley Knick Jr. as the board's secretary.

Archery range regulations move toward final vote
T h e b o a r d i n J a n u a r y g ave
preliminary approval to a package of
regulations for Game Commission
archery ranges.
Under the proposal, ranges would be
open from dawn to dusk daily, shooting
would need to occur from established
48

firing lines, and shooters would be
limited to six shots when sharing the
range. In addition, broadheads would
be permitted only when a broadheadshooting station is provided, and range
users could not possess an intoxicating
beverage, or be intoxicated.
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2018

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