RE: PA News - USP Files Permanent Injunction against PGC
On September 7, 2007 the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania petitioned Commonwealth Court to put a halt to all antlerless deer hunting on State Game Lands and State Forest Lands. Our request for injunctive relief demands the PA Game Commission to scientifically document and substantiate the need to further reduce our valued deer herd on public lands.
For the past six years the Game Commission and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources have conducted an accelerated deer reduction program resulting in the harvest of more than 3 million deer. This program has been in direct contradiction to the "careful, expert and scientific" mandate required of the PA Game Commissioners who oversee Game Commission policy. The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania believe the Game Commission has violated the law as well as abused its discretionary authority in the execution of its deer management program.
The PA Game Commission readily acknowledges they do not know how many deer exist in Pennsylvania, and have resorted to subjective and ambiguous evaluations to determine deer densities rather than sound, scientific and numerical data. Such unconventional and careless decision making has resulted in a dramatic and quite possibly an unsustainable decline of our public land deer herd. As a result of such capricious and arbitrary action, the Game Commission has been negligent in their responsibility to properly manage our state animal, the whitetail deer.
Deer hunting in Pennsylvania is a $4 billion per year industry touching the lives of millions of PA citizens. The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania believe the present deer management policies threaten the future of deer hunting in the Commonwealth.
Gregory D. Levengood
Chairman of the Board
Unified Sportsmen of PA