ORIGINAL: Crazy Horse RVN
Let's face it if the PGC wanted accurate numbers they would have made adjustments and improvements to their system decades ago. The way it operates now is the way they like it. Fudge the numbers and feed it to the hunting public who chow down on whatever they feed us.
The system is outdated, antiquated and of no value because it's no where near accurate and the agency knows it.
Many other states use check stations and have real time numbers. PA has a "Magical, Mystical, Formula" that no two people can explain in the same way.
As has already been explained the states that have check stations were hunters bring deer harvest about as many deer during a good harvest day as are harvested per hour on the opening day of the Pennsylvania deer season.
We simply don’t have the capacity, even if all of the Ma/Pa gas stations and sporting goods stores wanted to do it, in a manner that could possibly cycle hunters through in a timely manner. If hunters have to sit in line for even a couple of hours they simply aren’t going to do it, they are going to just take the deer home, process it and keep their mouths shut. Now ask them to sit in line for five or six hours or more and how well do you think it is going to work?
You make it sound like it would work in the other parts of the state even if the indications are that it wouldn’t work here in Elk County. But, the fact of the matter is that most of these northern tier counties no longer have Ma & Pa gas stations because they have been put out of business by places like Sheetz, Uni-Mart and a host of other stop and go shopping places. Those places have no interest in checking deer. We have three small sporting goods stores in the entire county and two of them have no parking except paid parking meters in the City of St. Marys. We have one small sporting good store with a one man operation that has a parking lot capable of handling more then ten cars at a time. We have one small country general store in the extreme northern part of the county that is a one man operation. We have four or five other small stores or gas stations in the county and most of them wouldn’t have the capacity, the interest or the manpower to check deer through half of the night.
Elk County is not alone in not having the facilities to find check stations, most of the other counties around the northern tier are very much in the same boat. In all of neighboring Cameron County I can only think of about four or five places that might have the capacity even if they had an interest in running a check station. You also have to remember that most people around these areas are hunters and they are not going to give up their opening day of deer season so they can volunteer to check deer that other hunters killed.
The really big thing though is that the states that do have deer check stations will tell you flat out that they probably don’t have a much better hunter reporting rate then states like Pennsylvania were hunters send in cards, report via phone or on line. Many of those states don’t have any handle on what their reporting rate really is even though they know it is not a good reporting rate. At least in Pennsylvania we do have a pretty darn good idea what our reporting rates are each year.
The Pennsylvania deer reporting and harvest estimating system has been evaluated by a professional accounting group that found the method and results to be very accurate and reliable.
You and the other detractors as just grasping at straws to find anything to discredit the Game Commission, the deer program, the officers and anyone that supports scientific management practices. Fortunately more rational people are no longer listening to your nonsense as much as they once did. That is presently a positive for the future of good wildlife management, the hunter and hunting. I have seen things on a positive course before only to once again have the whole program derailed so I would not be surprised if it happened again. But, one thing you can be sure of; I will be doing the best I can to debunk your nonsense and provide what information I can toward having more informed hunters in our ranks. Better informed hunters generally support good scientific management practices like those the Game Commission is trying to maintain with the minimum funding available.
R.S. Bodenhorn