A  2^and Board of Commissioners?

By: Alec Baker

On April 10, 2017, House of Representative David M. Maloney, Sr. posted his memorandum about a bill he plans to propose in the near future to improve wildlife habitat. In his memorandum, Maloney is proposing to create a Forest and Wildlife advisory council to assist the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) with managing the commonwealth’s wildlife populations (sounds like the board of game commissioners?).  The memorandum states “My bill would establish an independent Forest and Wildlife Advisory Council to assist the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) in performing its duties by working with a Pennsylvania-based, private, nonprofit, independent, scientific organization to design a habitat enhancement program that benefits deer and other forest-dwelling game and nongame species of wildlife.” My question here is, why put funding towards a second wildlife agency, instead of improving the current one?

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Maloney also states in the memorandum that the commonwealth’s sportsmen should be valued, and that the mission to serve them as well; I agree with this statement but the PGC is not just responsible for managing game species.  The PGC’s mission is, “to manage Pennsylvania's wild birds, wild mammals, and their habitats for current and future generations.” The PGC is not just responsible for managing game species (but they manage game species more intensely than non-game species).  Mr. Maloney goes on to say that with sufficient oversight and accountability, we will see massive declines in wildlife populations, and he uses ruffed grouse as an example. To elaborate on Mr. Maloney’s statement, the ruffed grouse population decline in Pennsylvania is due to west nile virus, which the PGC can not cure (since there is not one). After talking and listen to Lisa Williams, PGC Wildlife Biologist, who studies ruffed grouse says her research with monitoring and managing ruffed grouse in Pennsylvania is because ruffed grouse hunters. What confuses me about this memorandum, is Maloney talks about how this council would help manage game species, but claims that populations are drastically decreasing, when ruffed grouse and woodcock are about the only game species in Pennsylvania that are not as abundant as the rest. White-tailed deer, wild turkeys, black bears, and other game species are plentiful statewide, so I am interested to see where Mr. Maloney is getting his information since none of his information in the memorandum had sources to back them up.

Another thing that bewilders me is the redundancy of what Maloney is trying to get across. The memorandum states that this new organization would conduct scientific analyses to determine the health and carrying capacity of the commonwealth’s forests to maximize the deer population. As I state earlier, the PGC’s mission is to manage all birds and mammals within the common wealth not just deer. After this new organization conducts these analyses, the organization would present their data to the state and board of commissioners to determine amount of doe tags allotted. Why then is this organization called the Forest and Wildlife Advisory Council, when all this organization is doing is looking at deer management? There is already a deer and elk section within the PGC that manages white-tailed deer and elk throughout the commonwealth. Also, this council would just advise the PGC what they should do, which is what the wildlife biologists from the PGC do anyway. My concern here is do we need to put funding towards this advisory council, or maybe put more funding towards the PGC, and maybe revamping the requirements of the board of commissioners (adding more requirements other than holding a PA hunting license for the past 5 years).

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House of Representative, David M. Maloney, Sr. ends his memorandum discussing the economic incentives about implementing this Forest and Wildlife Advisory Council. Maloney claims that $400 billion could be generated if this legislation is passed, since the current situation is impacting rural communities because there is a lack of deer. Finishing the memorandum, Maloney claims that for every $10,000 invested by the common wealth there will be an annual return of $1,600. This economic impact lacks support; there is no in-depth explanation on how this Forest and Wildlife Advisory council will cause this positive economic impact other than that this council will increase the deer population.

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From an aspiring wildlife professionals standpoint I want to leave you readers with these last few statements. The PGC has wildlife biologist that every year conduct surveys to manage Pennsylvania’s wildlife, and makes harvest regulation recommendations to the board of game commissioners, who then make the final decision. From the sounds of this memorandum, the forest and wildlife advisory council will basically be doing what the PGC biologists already do. I want to leave you guys thinking about why should this proposed council exist; they would only worry about managing forest dwelling game species (mostly white-tailed deer), when there are other wildlife species in the state that need to managed as well; just because a species is not a game species does not make it anymore or less important to manage.

I encourage you if after reading this, and are concerned, to contact Mr. Maloney and express your concerns and opinions on this matter. Silence does not make a difference, but using your voice can make a change!

Here is the link to Maloney's memorandum: 

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?           chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=23559&mobile_choice=suppress

Works Cited:

Maloney, Sr., David M. Memorandum. Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 10 April         2017. <http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=23559&mobile_choice=suppress>. Accessed 24 April 2017.

Williams, Lisa. Lecture. April 2017.

Pennsylvania Game Commission [PGC]. About Us.<http://www.pgc.pa.gov/InformationResources/AboutUs/Pages/default.aspx>. Accessed 24 April 2017.

Photos:

[1] - Hannah White

[2] - Stephen Baker

[3] -Alec Baker