Buck magnet;
You say that you would like to see the PGC start planting food plots on the game lands up North. Well I can honestly say they have started and are continuing to plant food plots on the game lands. They are even pruning old apple orchards which i was very suprised to see as of late. Again, as I said before, its tough on most of our upstate game lands to plant alot of plots as the mountains are not condusive to planting the large fields of clover and alfalfa you are accustomed to seeing. I mean logically you cant plant fields on steep side hills or areas where you uncover the leaf litter and you have solid rock. In my opinion, they could help by increased logging efforts and allowing the understory to grow a little.

However, they are money driven as well and want to get the most value for their product (timber) as any good business should. But like I say they have started as of late to do a better job on food plots in my opinion.. Remember, lack of funding for alot of years prohibited them from doing alot of this kind of work in the past.

I have heard of this, but I would like to see more. I know that it isn't at the top of the PGC's list. They don't have the money. They get money by selling liscene's. I suggest that they raise the price of tags a little bit. I mean, even a 5 dollar increase on doe tags and a 5 dollar increase on the general hunting liscene would be a great increase in revenue. Lets see, that is ten bucks, lets say about a 2 million liscence/doe tags are sold. That would be 10,000,000 dollars extra brought into the PGC, and that is just if all hunters would pitch in an extra 10 bucks a year. That isn't much, but that money could go ALONG ways. Just think about it. Then, lets say a small 5 dollar increase in the bear tag, and maybe a 3 dollar increase in the trapping tags. That would be ALOT of extra money comming into the Game Commission and it wouldn't be THAT BAD on the hunters part. The mountains up there would be ALMOST impossible to plant, but you could do it, atleast in some areas. Even if they had some supplemental feeders set up around the areas. I know that this wouldn't be a big help, but if they could just set some up, it would help a little. I know that would be fairly expensive, but they could start a program where farmers send the PGC free corn and other crops, then, in return they could get some tax refund. I have heard about deer feeding in such close numbers that it causes disease, but I am not talking about having a pile of corn on the ground. I am talking about a motorized feeder. I don't know, it could work a little bit. I know that there are way too many malnutrioned deer up there that it wouldn't make a huge effect, but if it started to make the deer grow bigger antlers in a few areas, then maybe the hunters would be MORE WILLING to pass up smaller deer. Maybe that would help out a little bit.

Good Luck This Season: Buck Magnet
"Hunting is not a sport, it is a passion, it is a WAY OF LIFE"

BM: You really need to take the tour.

SGL #44 consists of 24,523 acres, of which 136 acres are already in food plots (goal is 250 acres). Trees grow fine there when the deer density is in check, but the soil is very poor for growing farm crops and requires a good deal of lime and fertilizer. It's very inefficient for the PGC to haul farming equipment up on the hill into the back woods, plus they have to maintain the equipment and pay someone to operate it. The supplemental feeding programs were abandoned long ago for many reasons, and are clearly not the solution.

The 100-year rotation cycle that the trees are under calls for cutting 1% a year. 78% of the wooded area is under even-aged management and 11% is under uneven-aged management. They are want to increase the amount of seedling/sapling stage timber on the even-aged areas from 7% up to 20% which should make a great deal more food and cover for deer and other wildlife. But first the deer densities must be brought down or the cuttings will turn into fern fields.

Personally, I would gladly pay more for a license if I felt it was going to good use, but I'd bet the majority would complain like mad.

I agree with you buck magent, I would support a small license increase but they did that a couple of years back and you still hear people grumbling about it. Personally I would like to see the non-resident fees get jacked up (no offense)I feer that non resident lic are cheap!The New jersey population influx here is unbelievable! let them bear more of the burden if they want to benefit from the new regs.

I agree with grundsow you need to take a tour or see one on PCN when they tape one. They are most informative.