Pennsylvania Game News - April 2020 - 15

to more than $1,000 today. This act
also is known for its famous exception,
allowing for the taking of songbirds "for
the purpose of scientific investigation, or
having the same stuffed and set up as a
specimen," as well as establishing "no
shooting or hunting" on Sundays.
As mentioned earlier, Kalbfus three
decades later, found fault with this law.
In 1905, the law was changed empowering only the Board of Game Commissioners to issue $5 certificates for taking
songbirds and their nests and eggs "for
strictly scientific study" or propagation.
Anything taken under the permit could
not be sold, exchanged or removed from
the Commonwealth. Collectors were
limited to eight birds and two nests and
their contents. The law also provided an
unlimited-take certificate for credentialed
ornithologists. Few received it.
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Probably the biggest step forward for
songbirds and most other wildlife, though,
was when the game wardens began
enforcing the Commonwealth's wildlife
laws. Prior to their employment, wildlife
laws weren't worth the paper upon which
they were printed.
The law creating the Game Commission authorized up to 10 game protectors,
a good start, but surely not enough to
cover the state's more than 46,000 square
miles. But within 20 years, the agency's
warden ranks expanded to 60, allowing
for almost one full-time officer in each of
the state's counties. Deputy game protectors also helped fill in where officers were
spread too thin.
However, it was the work of Pennsylvania's early naturalists that largely
defined what existed and where it was
found in the Commonwealth. They shed
light on the natural history of these species
APRIL 2020

and documented their seasonal movements and habitat preferences, information that eventually would help define
management programs for wildlife.
A review of Kalbfus' early writings
clearly shows how much he depended
on the work and words of these great
men to build for Pennsylvania's emerging
wildlife management program. A parttime lawyer and dentist before coming to
work for the Game Commission, Kalbfus
had the spirit, intelligence and integrity to
guide this new agency, but he really wasn't
a wildlifer.
The work of Warren, Rhoads and
Stone, and later ornithologist W. E. Clyde
Todd and artist/naturalist Earl L. Poole,
provided an essential understanding of
Pennsylvania's birds and mammals, which
served as a base from which to build and
manage wildlife more successfully.
With the money provided by the creation of a hunting license and wardens to
ensure laws were followed, Pennsylvania's wildlife management programs grew
to become some of the nation's finest. The
agency quickly became a national leader
in deer management, an innovator for the
creation of its state refuge system, and a
guiding light for species reintroductions
and trap-and-transfer. It also was one
of the earliest proponents for songbird
conservation.
Some of that success stems from the
fine conservation work occurring in Pennsylvania before the Game Commission
was formed. And, to this day academia,
conservation organizations and other
natural-resource agencies continue to help
the Game Commission in its mission to
manage Pennsylvania's 480 species of
wildlife for today and tomorrow. It's a
mission that is as important today as it
was when the need for a wildlife agency
was recognized in 1895.
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Pennsylvania Game News - April 2020

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