The Pennsylvania Game Commission is enlisting the aid of hunters to determine just where snowshoe hares exist on the Pennsylvania landscape, and if they’re still turning all white in winter, as they’ve traditionally done to better blend in with snow and escape predators.
Data from the 2017-18 hunting seasons show an increase in chronic wasting disease by more than 200 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Ron Shaulis of West Newton, Pa., took the new Pennsylvania state typical archery record buck on Oct. 24, 2017, with a compound bow on public land in Westmoreland County.
Federal excise taxes collected on the sale of rifles, shotguns, handguns, ammunition and archery gear have nearly tripled during the past decade, boosting federal funding for the nation’s wildlife and hunter-education programs to record levels even though many handgun, ammo and archery buyers don’t hunt.
A group of Pennsylvania hunters who were caught harvesting well beyond the legal limit of snow geese earlier this year have been sentenced, and face a combined $55,000 in fines.
Despite that Pennsylvania’s mentored hunting-license program was designed to create opportunities for newcomers to hunting, a new proposal simply creates more barriers.