If you think it has anything to do with insurance companies, you are out in the weeds and won't be taken seriously in Harrisburg. Sorry to be blunt but you need to do a lot of more research before busting off to politicians and the PGC about deer management being driven by insurance companies.

Case in point. no insurance company has ever appeared before the PGC asking for reduced deer numbers. Gary Alt spoke to it in the 2004 Audubon conference on deer overabundance where the state reps and executive directors of several agencies spoke.

States like michigan exceed Pa in deer/car accidents by nearly 50% (45,000 to Mich 65,000) yet no one is calling on Mich to cut thier herd in half. And no insurance companies are in pa either. Why? because the insurance company makes money everytime an accident occurs, not matter who causes it. They get thier money thru the premiums you pay. They always get thier money$$$ whether we have 900,000 deer or 1.9 million deer.

But we do know who DOES appear and lobby the PGC and the state legislators. Timber companies which derive hundreds of millions of $$ from Pa hardwood lumber sold at premium prices around the world. Most of pa timber is not even sold in the US. Its expeorted for more money than it would sell here. Pa has the largest 'certified' sustainable forest in the country. And certified timber sells at premium prices.

Just do a yahoo search on "sustainable forestry" +Pennsylvania and read on....

And of course conservationists which have always thrived in Pa along with a few sportsmans groups have ASKED for herd reductions. The PANWTF and the PA trappers association both endorse lower deer numbers for pa and "scientific deer management" along with the luke warm support of the PFSC's who pretty much support everything the PGC does without question historically.

But conservationists are the ones who donated 1.3 million dollars to the PGC to start herd reductions and study the effects, not insurance companies! The Audubon Society has sponsored two "Pa Deer overabundance" conferences in Harrisburg 1999 and 2004 which brought all the parties interested in less deer together to talk about how they would cut the herd in half to save Pa's ecosystem.

And of course the Pa Farm Bureau also wants as few deer as DCNR.


Not surprisingly the conference was not sponsored by Insurance Companies....

http://www.hfca.com/deerconfsummary.html

This is just a summary of the conference, the actual minutes are
http://pecpa.org/_final_pec/html/_ne...renceTrans.htm


Your not up against insurance companies pal, your up against some of the greatest environmental extremests Pa can offer.......