Pennsylvania Game News - July 2018 - 48

APRIL COMMISSIONERS MEETING
Continued from page 45
initiatives by the Game Commission to
make the pheasant propagation program
more cost-effective. The agency in
recent years closed two of its four
pheasant farms, and began purchasing
day-old chicks from private propagators
rather than carrying over breeding
pheasants and raising chicks from eggs.
Through these measures the annual
costs of the program have been reduced
from about $4.7 million to about $2.3
million. Additionally, the pheasant
permit in its first year generated more
than $1.1 million to help offset those
costs.
Commissioners said the reduced
overall costs of the program have
made it easier to grandfather-in those
pheasant hunters who held senior
lifetime licenses at the time the permit
became official.
Nearly 43,000 hunters purchased
a pheasant permit, and about 4,300
of them were senior lifetime license
buyers.

Junior pheasant hunters
need free 2018-19 permit
The Pennsylvania Board of Game
Commissioners in April adopted a measure
that requires junior hunters to obtain a
free pheasant permit to hunt pheasants in
Pennsylvania.
Previously, junior hunters did not
need a permit, which is required for adult
and some senior hunters who pursue
pheasants.
Issuance of a free permit to junior
hunters will help the Game Commission
quantify the number of youth participating
in pheasant hunting annually - data that
might entitle the agency to additional
funding for its pheasant program through
federal hunter recruitment funding
initiatives.
The measure adopted by the board
also removes the requirement to obtain a
permit for individuals hunting and taking
privately acquired propagated pheasants
on private lands. The exemption does
not apply to private lands designated
by agreement as cooperative access
lands, and all pheasants hunted taken or
possessed through this exemption need to
be appropriately banded, tagged, marked
or receipted.

Antlerless deer, elk license numbers set

Dates to apply for antlerless tags, enter elk drawing rapidly approaching.

The allocations for 2018-19 antlerless
deer licenses and elk licenses were
finalized by the Board of Game
Commissioners in April.
Statewide, 838,000 antlerless deer
licenses are available, which is up from
804,000 licenses allocated in 2017-18.
Compared to 2017-18, the number
of licenses allocated went up in most
Wildlife Management Units, but WMUs
1A, 2A, 2B, 2F, 2H, 3B, 3C and 3D
saw decreased allocations. Allocations
48

were unchanged in WMUs 3D, 4B, 4D
and 5C.
July 9 is the first day for residents
to apply for antlerless licenses.
Nonresidents may apply on July 16.
Applications for the elk license
drawing must be in by July 31.
A total of 125 elk licenses - 26 for
bulls - have been allocated for 2018-19.
A new hunt zone - Elk Hunt Zone
14 - has been created, and six licenses,
two for bulls, are available there.
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2018

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