Pennsylvania Game News - April 2020 - 46

in recent years.
"It's evidence that moving the opener
to Saturday was the right decision to
make," Layton said.
It remains uncertain when the 2020
firearms deer season will open. The
preliminary list of 2020-21 hunting
seasons and bag limits includes a Saturday
opener that would be followed by a day
of Sunday hunting, which would mean
the season would start with eight days
of uninterrupted hunting. However, it's
not unusual for dates to change between
the time the preliminary seasons are
introduced and the final seasons are
adopted, which this year will be at the
April 7 meeting.
The data on license sales was presented
to the commissioners by Coren Jagnow,
the Game Commission's human
dimensions specialist.
Jagnow in her presentation noted that
hunting-license sales through December
increased by 0.4 percent in 2019 to
849,575. That's an increase of 3,351
licenses.
While the change might seem
small, Jagnow said it's important to
consider license sales have been trending
downward for more than three decades. In
the previous license year, sales declined
by 3.4 percent - a loss of more than
30,000 hunters. And since the peak year
for license sales in 1982, license sales
increased just 13 times in 36 years.
Jagnow said there's a strong correlation
between the 2019 Saturday opener and
increased license sales, providing reason
for optimism that further increases could
be achieved in coming years.
"It certainly seems a step in the right
direction to reverse the long-term trend of
hunter loss," she said.
Young-adult hunters were among those
behind the bigger increases in licenses
46

sales. License sales to hunters ages 18 to
34 increased by 0.56 percent overall. And
in the seven days leading up to the opening
day, resident hunters 18 to 34 bought
20,242 licenses - a more than 7 percent
increase for this age group compared to
the previous year.
College-aged hunters ages 18 to
21 were responsible for even higher
increases, buying 44,911 licenses - a 2.4
percent increase - with 5,311 of those
licenses purchased in the seven days
leading up to the season - an 18.4 percent
increase compared to the previous year.
Creating opportunities for more hunters
to hunt more often has been central to the
Game Commission's philosophy for
years, said Game Commission Executive
Director Bryan Burhans.
The 2019 Saturday opener expanded
the firearms deer season to 13 days, three
of them Saturdays. The 2019-20 late
archery and flintlock deer seasons were
extended by more than a week. New
October bear seasons for hunters using
muzzleloaders and firearms and a longer
bear archery season helped to bring about
a record bear harvest in 2019. And new elk
seasons allowed hunters to experience elk
country in a whole new way in September
and January.
And in 2020, additional Sunday
hunting opportunities, and the prospect
for season-long concurrent hunting of
antlered and antlerless deer and the return
of a three-day Thanksgiving turkey season
would fall in line with the same pattern.
"In this day and age, where people
lead busy lifestyles and many hunters
who drop from the ranks do so because
they can't find the time to hunt, creating
opportunity might be the biggest key in
keeping hunters active to carry on our
traditions and maintain strong wildlife
populations," Burhans said.
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2020

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