The deer numbers in much of the northern tier have been controlled by the various environmental conditions, instead of the low harvests, for a long time. That isn’t good management it is horrible management because it really isn’t management at all. That is what the hunters and politicians demanded and that is what they got.

But, the reason those good habitat areas have such high fawn recruitment is because they have been harvesting enough deer to protect the habitat. And, conversely the reason the poor habitat areas have such low fawn recruitment is simply because there isn’t food to keep the does healthy enough to produce and feed the fawns they carried through the winter and spring.

ORIGINAL: R.S.B.


So you want to compare Pennsylvania to Ohio? That is fine, but let'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

ORIGINAL: R.S.B.

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.

ORIGINAL: R.S.B.

But, since we should be talking about license fees how 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, and compare 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 still should to be funded from the 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

ORIGINAL: Cornelius08

I was over on another site just now and saw some funny posts. Topic was that ridiculous price comparison chart that some knucklehead made up with terribly inaccurate comparisons to fool the legislators... Anyway, Ive been talkiing on a couple of sites about the huge inaccuracies, terribly favorable to Pa price manipulatingand the cheap states being left out etc... Someone agrees I guess, cause theyre saying the chart compares apples and bananas on hpa. (LOL)

Funniest part the chart lists WV license at $43.WV resident and pgcsupporter WVGINOchimed in with:

"Not sure where they get the number for WV. For $33 you gat a sportsman license. It's a combo fishing/hunting license. You can fish, small game hunt, turkey hunt spring and fall, waterfowl hunt, trap, deer archery, deer rifle and deer muzzie. Base license lets you harvest three deer, all of which can be bucks.

I dont know who made up that chart but they are either one clueless individual or sure doesnt believe in honesty! 10 dollars off the mark according to Gino, and even if it werent for that, theyare comparing a hunting, archery, muzzleloader, trapping + + +, license to Pa's! LOL! Real bargain here in the keystone state eh? Add up total for a fishing hunting trapping muzzleload and archery license for Pa and compare to WV! LMAO!

ORIGINAL: fellas2

RSB,please tell me how many hours you have spent afield in 2A ? You may consider youself and expert in Elk county,but unless you spend the time in the woods in 2A,please refrain from giving us your expert "opinion" of what's going on there.I would be curious to know if the PGC has any idea of how devastating EHD was in our little corner of the state and how they might have come to such a conclusion especially since most of their research is done on road kills and harvested deer.I personally know of over 100 deer killed by EHD just on three properties I hunt which translates to thousands across the WMU yet at no point did the PGC stop antlerless sales.That being said,2008 showed no reduction in antlerless license sales to compensate for the loss.As far as your post of the harvest data starting back in 1983

Unit…………83-87.……………88-92.……………93-97.…………..98-02.…………..03-07
1A…………..5.86.………………8.72.…… ……….10.02.…………..12.02.………….. 10.60
2A…………..5.75.………………8.75.…… ……….11.10.…………..13.30.………….. 13.78

it doesn't take a rocket scientist to explain a few reasons why the numbers increased that dramatically and it has nothing to do with the size of the herd "doubling" during that span.Anyone who has hunted there since 1980 as I have knows there were far more deer then than there is now,it all boils down to the number of actual hunters there harvesting the deer.Back in the 80's , 2A was a virtual untapped deer bonanaza simply due to the fact that so many guysmade their yearlt trek to"the big woods"to take part in that experience and were so successfull that there was no reason to change.As the herd decreased and the economy dictated,more and more hunters were forced to spend less timeand money traveling and hunting and more time at home and at work so the next best thing was to find places closer to home.And lo and behold,Greene and Washington counties became the new "hot spot" to go.It was onlya short drive for many western PA guys and back then,you could actually get permission to hunt many properties by asking the landowner.Common sense tells you that the more hunters taking advantage of such a bountifull supply of deer,the higher the harvest number will get.