Published: September 13, 2009 12:17 am      

Outdoors in brief 9/14/2009

Deadline nears for guides

HARRISBURG – Anyone interested in applying to be a bobcat or elk guide for the upcoming seasons should submit a completed application to the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Bureau of Wildlife Protection by Oct. 16.

Guide permits cost $25 for residents and $50 for nonresidents, per species.

For those who wish to serve as guides for both bobcat and elk, permit fees are $50 for residents, $100 for nonresidents.

Bobcat guides may assist in all aspects of hunting or trapping bobcats, except for setting traps or harvesting bobcats.

Similarly, elk guides may provide assistance in locating or tracking elk, and calling for elk, but they may not harvest an elk.

Permit applications may be obtained from the Game Commission’s Harrisburg headquarters by calling (717) 787-5740, or by contact any of the Game Commission’s six region offices.

Guides are not required for those who only plan to accompany a bobcat permit holder or elk license recipient, or those who plan to aid a successful elk hunter to remove an elk from the field.

Since only properly licensed hunters may take part in the hunt, and since the agency is awarding only a limited number of bobcat permits and elk licenses, the guide permit enables those who receive a bobcat permit or elk license to take someone along to participate in the hunt without violating the law.



Hundreds watch drawing

HARRISBURG – Nearly 800 people tuned in to watch Friday’s live Webcast of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s bobcat permit and elk license public drawings.

Carl G. Roe, the agency’s executive director, called the event a good first step toward improving public access to the quarterly board of game commissioner meetings and other events.

“We are striving to improve public access to game commission events and informational programs, and Webcasting certainly is the best avenue we have to do so in an inexpensive manner,” Roe said. “We recognize that many who are interested in the agency’s activities are unable to travel to Harrisburg to attend board meetings, or attend open houses on various programs, such as deer management.

“By seeking ways to maximize the use of our Web site with our present level of funding, we hope to better open the channels of communication between the public and its wildlife management agency.”

The Webcast was initiated as a means to enable more people to view the public drawings for awarding bobcat permits and elk licenses.

“By Webcasting the public drawings, we were able to reach far more than the 45 people who were able to travel to the agency’s Harrisburg headquarters,” Roe said. “In fact, according to the free Webcasting service we used for (Friday’s) broadcast, we saw that there were nearly 800 people tuned in at one time.”



Hearing set on doe tags

The House Game and Fisheries Committee will hold a public hearing on Oct. 22 on the process used to distributed antlerless deer licenses.

The meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. in Room 140 of the Main Capitol Building in Harrisburg.

Representatives from the County Treasurers’ Association and the Pennsylvania Game Commission are scheduled to appear, as are individual license buyers who have been invited to provide their personal views and experiences.