ORIGINAL: J Pike
RSB. on very negative note 924,000 PA. deer hunters only harvested 335,850 deer during the 2008-09 season.
Meanwhile over in OH. 450,000 deer hunters harvested 252,017 deer during the 2008-09 season.
But I have a really good idea for the PGC., since the PGC. supporters on this site claim that the large majority of the hunters in PA. support the PGC. and the lic. fee increase why doesnt the PGC. just ask the hunters who do not bow hunt to purchase a bow stamp this year? The hunters who do not bear hunt to purchase a bear permit? And the hunters who do not turkey hunt to purchase a turkey tag and so on? No need for the legislature to get involved and no need for a Lic. fee increase. Pike
So you want to compare Pennsylvania to Ohio? That is fine, butlet's do it fairly instead of the biased way you like to compare them.
Number of hunters per square mile:
Ohio……………….10.99
Penna………………20.62
Deer harvests per square mile:
Ohio………………6.15
Penna……………..7.49
License cost for a resident to hunt small game plus one deer and one turkey:
Ohio……………….$67.00 before issuing fees/per license for three separate licenses
Penna………………$20.00 before a $1.00 issuing fee
Therefore, I would suspect that if Pennsylvania only had half as many hunters the hunter success rate here would most likely exceed the success rate in Ohio.
But, since we should be talking about license feeshow about we go ahead and do that.
In Ohio their Conservation Department is not self funded, like here in Pennsylvania. They got their money, to operate, directly from their state general fund tax dollars every year. Every resident in their state pays for wildlife management and conservation, unlike here in Pennsylvania where all of the wildlife management is paid for by hunter dollars. Ohio also still gets thier share of P-R funds from the Federal Government, based on license sales, the same as Pennsylvania and every other state, too.
Yet, an Ohio resident pays over three times as much to hunt deer and turkey as what a Pennsylvania resident pays.
So, I agree lets get our hunting license prices on par with Ohio and still have all of the state’s tax payers supporting wildlife management and conservation with their general taxes. I suspect if we do that we will only have half as many hunters as what we have now, andcompare with Ohio’s hunter numbers. I suspect those hunters will still be able to harvest more deer then they do in Ohio though so our hunter success rate would then also be much higher then it is in Ohio.
How about that I agree with Pike we need to be more like Ohio.
So, you should march right down to you Legislator’s office tomorrow morning and demand that the Pennsylvania hunting license prices triple.Also demand that even after they do that the Game Commission stillshould to be fundedfromthe state’s general taxes so everyone, instead of just hunters,pays thier share for wildlife management, just like things are done in Ohio.
Do you still want to compare and tell us how good they have it in Ohio?
R.S. Bodenhorn