You are welcome to your opinions, but I certainly don’t agree with the ones you just expressed.
The future of hunting is on private land, just look towards our southern neighbors. Most of the HR has taken place on public lands and private land open to hunting, now those private lands are drying up with leasing happening just like our southern States. Your PGC has no control over where an antlerless is used, they should have been issued for private land or public land only. Most hunters hunting State Gameless Lands aren't seeing even one deer, they are dropping out of the sport faster than the national average.
But, many of the public land are the most under hunted areas in this state. They are under hunted and under harvested because hunters aren’t willing to hunt the remote hard to hunt areas where it is hard to get a harvest out. That might not be true around the most metropolitan areas with smaller areas of public land. But, even there hunters probably have to actually over harvest the public lands just to reduce the over all deer population around the areas that are being so seriously under harvested. If they don’t do that then it will lead to even more under harvested areas that then result in more rapid habitat damage over larger areas and eventually to crashing deer populations do to not having enough food to support the deer populations.
The future of hunting will be determined by the DCNR, not the PGC, our PGC has served its purpose in the past, but outside influence has clouded its mission.
I don’t know just what you think the outside influences are but the last I had heard the laws required that all of the state’s resources be managed for all of the state’s public, not just hunters.
But, that aside I can tell you that the people that have had the greatest and most harmful influence on the mismanagement of the deer herds and their habitat have been the hunters and politicians of this state. The Game Commission’s mission has always been clear and they would have been much more successful at fulfilling a better deer mission had they not received the interference from those public and political pressures.
Our SGL's are being managed for timber, why not have out timber experts (DCNR) manage this land rather than an uncontrollable agency that won't admit they make mistakes.
That comment proves beyond any doubt just how utterly clueless you are. The game lands are managed for wildlife even if it means totally wasting timber to provide better wildlife management and populations. The DCNR is mandated by their regulations to manage for timber, though they still try to benefit wildlife as much as possible while fulfilling that mission.
The Game Commission has made lots of mistakes. The worst ones have been when they listened to the hunters and politicians yammering for more deer then the habitat could support long term while ignoring the advise and recommendations of the state’s resource professionals. That is the mistake that has resulted in having so few deer in so many areas today and that is exactly what needs fixed. That is also why I come to places this attempting to point out the follies of those past mistakes. Hopefully enough people are able to understand those mistakes of the past so we can stop making them and improve the future.
You sure would have to change your attitude to become a Forest Ranger, your people skills are the same as the upper management of the PGC.
Why is that, because I tell people the truth even when it isn’t what they wanted to hear or politically correct? Oh well, I never had any desire to be a Forest Ranger anyway, if I had I would have become one along time ago.
R.S. Bodenhorn