Sorry to have upset you fellows, but where are the figures of license sales for August?
The agency suffered a 6% loss of license buyers last year. If this trend continues or increases in coming years how long before the agency is basically bankrupted? The question the PGC should be addressing is how to stop this loss. As it is now, they don't seem to care.

In any commercial enterprize losses such as these would bemade a priority. At Elmerton Avenus it's business as usual. This to me indicates that a change in executive management is needed. Corporations do it all the time. That's how they stay at the top of their game. Management that is entrenched for a lifetime generally end up stagnated andbankrupted as is the direction the Pennsylvania Game commission is headed.

All I have to say is, SHOW ME THE FIGURES FOR AUGUST!

I'm sure Joe Neville is watching this thread and will post the numbers eithertoday or very soon.

The declining hunting license sales are not a problem unique to PA. Virtually every state in the US is experiencing a decline in lisense sales for both hunting and fishing.

IMHO, the decline in youth license sales is a huge part of that. I wonder if you could tell me what the USP is doingto do their part in helping to encourage young people to take up the sports of our great outdoors? This isn't justthe PGC's job. It's everyones job!

It's difficult to entice young people to take up the sport of hunting when small game hunting is so poor. Youth can get very discouraged with sitting in a tree stand and seeing very few if any deer.It's generally cold and can be very boring to a kid. Pheasant hunting on the other hand was a wonderful recruitng tool for young hunters. They got to shoot many and multiple times. Missing birds was nearly as much of a delight as was connecting on a rooster. Without a plentyful pheasant stocking program recruiting young people into the sport is not going to happen to any significant degree. Certainly the agency should be well aware of this. A healthy pheasant program would go a long way in gaining new and young hunters into our fold.

As it is now the agency is turning their head away from pheasants and in effect our youth. Elk and Fishers appear to be of greater importance. I believe their priorities are misplaced. Remember last year they wanted to eliminate the youth pheasant hunt. The outcry was so great from hunters that they were forced to recommit to accomidating the youth. They had to be embarrassed into doing the right thing. Also, the agency contributes nothing in the formof monitary aid for the Wild PheasantReintroduction Program that is going on in wesatern PA and hopefully will be extended into the Northeast this year. The agency has not budgeted forit in the last 3 years, yet they have money for the elk where only 40 to 50 lucky lottery winners will get the opportunity to hunt them and youth will be a vey minimal percentage of those lucky 40 hunters.

I know, your going to say they don't have the cash for the pheasant programs. I say CUT THE TIMBER that they are supposed to be cutting. I say gut the elk program and concentrate on small game, pheasants, grouse and rabbits. The agency should be investing inour youth and the future of hunting.

I've hunted these stocked pheasants 3 times in my life.Twice whenI was a kid,I hunted at a couple places outsideof Tunkhannock.There were guys all over and you had to practically kick the birds to get them to fly.Two years ago I went out with an older gentleman to a farm outside of Brockway Pa in the laste season.It was the same story.I know we have different views on alot of different issues and this is no exception.I'm all for creating habitat for all game species and that's exactly whay I see happening.I'm not for the instant gratification that ditch chickens create and I think the whole project should be scrapped.

Thsi response tells me that you obviously arent currently involved with any hunting youth. The youth pheasant hunt is something I've been involved in in the past several years and I can tell you it is very successful anywhere I'vebeen directrly involved. You yourself have said that pheasant hunting is a very good way to introduce youth to hunting. I agree. Does the USP contribute any funds or manpower to this very important program?

After all this time I know that one is a favorite part of the USP/Slinsky anti-PGClitany, but how are you or JS qualified to judge where, how and when SGL timber should be harvested, on the roughly one-half of the SGL acreage that evenhas marketable timber?

Aren't they essentially required to cut timber in the interest of habitat improvements...or has someone decided it's now just another exploitable asset to be used for short term income in the absense ofsufficient operating expenses?

We've already explored the ongoing pheasant programs being led by Pheasants Forever, etc. They seem to be encouraged by whatever progress is being achieved and thepromise of future involvement by the PGC as funds permit.

Do they know more than you do, or is it more important just to keep up the condemnations in the hopes of winning more converts?

You are cheap-shotting. How could you know what he does or doesn't do?
BTW, if you've only been involved with the youth pheasant hunt for the past several years you must be a very young guy.

"DougF" Your comment of "Ditch Chickens" does not deserve a reply. Your hunting interests and experiences are obviously limited. So I'll just dismiss your post.

"BT" your knowledge of my participation in youth activities is about "0." If you've only been involved with youth activities for several years I have to ask, where have you been the last 25 years?

It should be noted that the PGC has paid employees who should be responsible for these activities and the planning thereof.
I'm glad to see that we agree that pheasant hunting is a great incentive for junior huntors. Please relay that thought to your friends on Elmerton Ave. It's obviously something that has recently slipped by them.

As for the comments by Dennis, well I take them with a grain of salt and then I move on to more important issues.

More importantly, where are the license sales figures for August?

Harrisburg.

Next!

You are partly correct. My knowledge of your participation in youth activities is limited. What I should have said, based on your statementsis that you obviously could not have been involved with the youth pheasant hunt. If you had, you would know how successful it has been with the youth in attendance.

Of course, you concluded incorrectly that my involvement with youth was limited to the last several years. What I said was that I had been involved in the pheasant hunt for the last several years. Over the past 25 (your number) years, I have been a JOAD junior olympic archery coach and president of a JOAD organization, president of an archery club, PFSC county league rep, UBP county rep, Cub Scoutmaster Boy Scoutmaster and probably a few things I've forgotten.

By the way, you ducked my question about what the USP hasdone to encourage youth participation in our sports. Or was your statement that it's too hard because there are no deer or pheasants your answer?