Published: August 09, 2009 12:40 am      

Outdoors in brief 8/9/2009

Agency giving grants for watershed work

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will make more than $1.36 million in grants to a variety of organizations to develop and implement projects that benefit fishing, boating, and aquatic resources within the Sinnemahoning Creek Watershed in Cameron, Elk, Potter and McKean counties.

The funding is available through a 2007 settlement agreement with Norfolk Southern as restitution for environmental damages from a June 30, 2006, train derailment in rural Norwich Township,

McKean County. The accident spilled sodium hydroxide into Big Fill Run, Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek and the Driftwood Branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek.

Under the settlement, Norfolk Southern agreed to pay the state $7.35 million as restitution for environmental damages. The fish commission got $3.675 million of the settlement, and must use the funds for projects in Cameron, Elk, McKean or Potter counties. The agency also has dedicated a minimum $125,000 to the McKean County Boondocs Program, a conservation and education project that uses the construction of trout stream improvement devices as a means of providing treatment to delinquent and dependent children.



Dove, goose seasons to open Sept. 1

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Game Commission has announced that hunting seasons on mourning doves and Canada geese will open Sept. 1 as they have in recent years.

Season lengths and bag limits will remain similar as well.

Dove season will again be in three segments.

Hunting will be permitted from noon until sunset from Sept. 1-26.

Hunting hours will be a half-hour before sunrise until sunset

Oct. 24-Nov. 28 and Dec.

26-Jan. 2. Bag limits in all three segments are 15 a day, with a possession limit of 30.

The season on resident

Canada geese will run from Sept. 1-25, but bag limits will vary in different portions of the state.

In this area, the daily limit will be eight birds with a possession limit of 16.



Commission posts info on bird flu

As hunters prepare for waterfowl and migratory game bird seasons, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has urged hunters to review information posted on its Web site (www.pgc.state.pa.us) about avian influenza and wild birds.

The information can be accessed by selecting "Wildlife" in the left-hand column of the agency’s homepage, and then scrolling down and clicking on “Avian Influenza” in the “Wildlife Diseases” box.

“We have compiled a list of important facts, answers to common questions and links to more detailed information on our website,” said Walt Cottrell, Game Commission wildlife veterinarian.

“Migratory birds – typically waterfowl and shorebirds – are considered the natural reservoir for Avian Influenza viruses. But, these are the low-pathogenic strains of the disease, a far cry from the virus that is causing so much trouble in domestic poultry elsewhere in the world,” Cottrell said.