Pennsylvania Game Commission - State Wildlife Management Agency 2005 Press Releases

Release #029-05




ROSENBERRY SELECTED AS NEW DEER MANAGEMENT SUPERVISOR



HARRISBURG - Dr. Christopher Rosenberry has been named the new Pennsylvania Game Commission Deer Management Section Supervisor, according to Calvin W. DuBrock, director of the agency's Bureau of Wildlife Management. Rosenberry fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Dr. Gary Alt in December.



Since 2000, Rosenberry has been employed by the agency as a wildlife biometrician, and he has worked with the agency's deer section for the past few years. He had worked extensively with whitetails in Delaware and Maryland before joining the Game Commission.



"Dr. Rosenberry is a great fit to guide Pennsylvania's deer program," DuBrock said. "He's been offering input on and helping to measure the effects of the many changes that have been made to the deer program over the past several years. He is familiar with what the agency has been doing in deer management, knows our deer management history and understands the cultural and societal influences that have an impact on managing white-tailed deer."



Having worked with the agency's deer team for four years, Rosenberry said that he views his new role as a team leader, with an emphasis on "team."



"The experiences of the three biologists in the deer section cover almost every aspect of deer management," Rosenberry said. "As a group, we are committed to making responsible recommendations for managing Pennsylvania's deer population."



In addition to Rosenberry, the Deer Management Section is comprised of Bret Wallingford, who has been with the agency since 1990, and Jeannine Tardiff, who has been with the agency since 2004.



Rosenberry began his wildlife career as a biologist aide with the Game Commission and, after eight years of education and work experience, returned to take a full-time position as the wildlife biometrician in 2000.



During his service with the Game Commission, Rosenberry co-authored with Dr. Mathew Lovallo, Game Commission biologist, the agency's new Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) system; assisted in the development of the new elk population survey method; assisted in the design and implementation of the recent deer research studies; and refined the agency's deer harvest estimation procedures and the harvest reporting rate program. He also has been overseeing the annual Game-Take and Furtaker surveys, which is used to estimate the number of species-specific hunters and furtakers, amount of hunting and trapping effort and the size of the harvest for a variety of small game, furbearer and waterfowl species.



Rosenberry co-wrote - along with Wallingford and Dr. Duane Diefenbach, assistant unit leader for the U.S. Geological Survey's Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, housed on the Penn State University Park campus - an article published in the Journal of Wildlife Management that evaluated and found the agency's development and use of harvest reporting rates to be scientifically valid for estimating deer harvests.



Rosenberry grew up in southcentral Pennsylvania where he graduated from West Perry High School, and he graduated with honors from Juniata College in 1992 with a bachelor's of science in biology. After graduation from Juniata, he held a number of temporary wildlife positions before beginning his graduate work at North Carolina State University. As a graduate student, he studied dispersal ecology and behavior of white-tailed deer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1997, he graduated from North Carolina State University with a doctorate in zoology and a minor in statistics.



After graduation from North Carolina State University, he worked for Delaware's Division of Fish and Wildlife as a deer biologist. In Delaware, he administered the deer damage assistance program, coordinated a citizens' task force that provided input for development of a statewide deer management plan, and worked on agricultural and suburban deer issues. Following his work with Delaware's Division of Fish and Wildlife, he held a research position at Delaware State University, where he continued to work on agricultural and suburban deer conflicts. He also held a teaching position at West Chester University prior to coming to the Game Commission in 2000.



A member of The Wildlife Society and the American Society of Mammalogists, he has authored or co-authored publications in scientific journals such as the Journal of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Society Bulletin, and Canadian Journal of Zoology. He also has authored and co-authored articles for popular press magazines; as well, as a chapter in the Ecology and Management of Large Mammals in North America.



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Wonder if things will change or if he'll stay the course? He worked with Alt and has to be well aware of the politics that caused Alt to leave. I don't think they'd hire someone who'd simply take Alt's ball and run with it without any changes.

This is going to be interesting.

Hopefully he'll continue with the basic plan and work to fix the little problems that've developed along the way. IMHO most of it could be fixed by managing in smaller units and discontinuing the ridiculous practice of managing private and public lands in the same way.

Poor guy.

I guess now that the witch has a name, the witch-hunts can begin.

I hope this guy has enough ramrod in his spine to stand up to the quackos and stay the course.

There are some changes that I would make, but that's neither here nor there at this point.

I feel bad for him - I think Gary Alt's life was actually threatened, as if being the scapegoat for every hunter who ever got skunked since the turn of the century wasn't bad enough.

It's a shame that people get so nutty over seeing a few less deer.

Good luck Mr. Rosenberry. I'll be on your side.

Did not say if he hunts.thats more important to me then all them education dummy sheepskins.

I have never heard of him in Delaware, and am on some DNREC advisory boards, have attended wildlife meetings in that era, I should've paid more attention.....

Could you please explain how you expect the PGC to manage private lands differently than public lands? Are you suggesting that there should be management units, much smaller than the former county units.

Translation: Knows that all the 'Brown its down' guys and people that want to shoot any deer that walks by will be out to crucify him if he's doesnt support the 'good old days' rules. [:-]

I wish him luck, he'll need it!

i also agree that the biggest problem is the difference between public and private land.. i hope something is done about it. for public its simple cut down the doe tags.. private well what can ya do? its the landowners land, but isent it the PGC's deer???
i just hope he and the PGC listen to the public land hunters..

There's a lot of people who don't think density goals of 5 - 10 DPSM is a "little problem".

good luck to the guy. hopefully it will be an improvment on the deer herds