Pennsylvania Game Commission Sets 2021-22 Seasons and Bag Limits

The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners at its meeting April 10 approved the 2021-22 hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits, and moved forward with a number of other actions.

“Hunters and trappers can start making their plans for the year ahead,” said Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans. “It will be a year full of exciting opportunities, with statewide concurrent antlered and antlerless firearms deer hunting, expanded Sunday hunting opportunities and more ways to get afield.”

The complete list of adopted 2021-22 seasons and bag limits is contained in a separate news release.

Other board action is summarized below.

CONCURRENT

ANTLERED AND

ANTLERLESS SEASONS STATEWIDE

The slate of deer seasons approved by the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners for the 2021-22 license year will allow for concurrent hunting for antlered and antlerless deer through the duration of the firearms deer season in all Wildlife Management Units (WMUs).

The board had authorized concurrent seasons in 10 WMUs in the 2020-21 seasons, mainly in WMUs in which Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) had been detected in free-ranging deer. By expanding concurrent seasons statewide to all WMUs, the board has provided hunters with more opportunities to harvest antlerless deer, and reduced confusion about which WMUs are open to antlerless hunting.

In adopting a statewide concurrent season, the board noted allowing antlerless deer hunting throughout the season is not intended to increase the antlerless harvest. Deer populations are managed through the allocation of antlerless licenses. On average, one antlerless deer is harvested for every four antlerless deer licenses allocated.

In most WMUs, antlerless license allocations were decreased with the move from a seven-day to a 14-day concurrent season. But because deer-population objectives determine harvest goals, and therefore the allocation of antlerless licenses, the allocations are not decreasing everywhere. For example, in WMUs where the deer population is increasing, but the deer management plan goal is to stabilize the population, an increase in harvest is needed. As a result, the antlerless allocation has increased to achieve a higher harvest. In WMUs with chronic wasting disease (CWD), similar increases in allocation and harvest are necessary.

Providing for the concurrent antlerless and antlered season provides hunters with additional time to meet the deer management objectives in each WMU and takes into account the potential for inclement weather to negatively affect hunting opportunities during the firearms deer season.

THREE-LICENSE LIMIT FOR ANTLERLESS DEER HUNTERS LIFTED

Hunters statewide now have the opportunity to apply for and receive additional antlerless deer licenses, as long as those licenses remain available, and provided that a hunter holds no more than six unfilled antlerless licenses at a time.

The Board of Commissioners on April 10 adopted a measure that removes the three-license limit for antlerless deer hunters statewide.

Hunters will continue to mail antlerless-license applications to county treasurers, as required by law. Applications will follow the same schedule as in years past, where residents, and later nonresidents, are permitted to apply for a license in the opening round, and in each of two successive rounds for any Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) where licenses remain. Then, in early September, over-the-counter sales will begin, and hunters can pick up a fourth, fifth and sixth antlerless license in any WMU where licenses remain, either by going to a county treasurer’s office to purchase them or sending an application by mail.

Once a hunter obtains six licenses, the hunter can’t purchase additional licenses without first harvesting deer and reporting them. At no time is a hunter able to possess more than six unfilled antlerless licenses.

But there is no limit on the total number of licenses a hunter can obtain in a license year. As long as licenses remain available, and a hunter holds fewer than six unfilled antlerless licenses, the hunter can purchase another. A hunter without an antlerless deer license can purchase six licenses at a time over-the-counter starting in September.

Commissioner Kristen Schnepp-Giger noted previously that this change won’t impact the vast majority of hunters, who already are able to purchase antlerless licenses within the initial rounds of the antlerless application process, prior to the WMU of their choice selling out. But it does allow hunters in WMUs with leftover licenses to buy up to six of them, instead of the previous limit of three.

The proposal to remove the three-license limit for antlerless deer hunters statewide is intended to ensure that licenses allocated within a WMU are issued to the fullest extent possible. For instance, in WMUs 2A and 4A in the 2020-21 license year, well over 16,000 antlerless licenses remained available in mid-November, and hunters in these and other areas have questioned whether the three-license limit continues to make sense.

The new process is simpler, since the same distribution rules now apply to all WMUs, and it maintains fair and equitable distribution. The rule change could make more antlerless licenses available deeper into hunting season, perhaps giving hunters who purchase their licenses later a chance to get one. And it likely will result in the collateral benefit of increasing harvest reporting.

Initially, the proposal to lift the three-license limit set a hunter’s limit at four unfilled antlerless deer licenses. That limit was increased to six to better serve hunters in the state’s Special Regulations Areas while still maintaining simple, consistent rules for all hunters statewide.

ELIMINATING RIFLE

USE FOR FALL

TURKEY HUNTING COULD SPARE

ADDITIONAL

SEASON-LENGTH

REDUCTIONS

The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners on April 10 adopted a measure that will provide the Game Commission an additional tool to respond to below-goal turkey populations.

The commissioners voted to eliminate the use of manually operated centerfire and rimfire firearms for fall turkey hunting.

Recent survey data indicate only 14 percent of Pennsylvania fall turkey hunters primarily use rifles, but rifles are responsible for 33 percent of the fall turkey harvest. By eliminating rifle use in fall turkey season, it’s estimated the statewide harvest could be reduced by 20 percent, while most turkey hunters would be unaffected by the change in requirements.

Reducing fall turkey season length has been the primary method to help out turkey populations. Season length adjustments are based on standards set forth in the Game Commission’s Wild Turkey Management Plan.

At present, turkey populations are below goal in 15 of 23 Wildlife Management Units, and shorter season lengths have been adopted in response. Depending on the actual impact of removing rifles from fall turkey seasons, recent fall turkey season length reductions could eventually be reversed and more hunting opportunities added.

“The Board of Commissioners wants to take the necessary steps to protect Pennsylvania’s turkey populations, which have been below-goal in many Wildlife Management Units,” said Commissioner Scott Foradora, who represents District 3 in northcentral Pennsylvania. “Faced with a decision between either shortening the overall season length which will impact all turkey hunters, or removing rifles which are used by a smaller group of hunters, the board believed that the better option is to remove rifles. Taking rifles out of the fall season will reduce the harvest of hens in that season, without further reducing season lengths, thus giving turkeys further protection without limiting hunters’ time afield.”

COMMISSIONERS CALL FOR

COOPERATION IN

BATTLING CWD

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) continues to be a serious threat to Pennsylvania deer and deer hunting, and combating it is going to require cooperation between wildlife managers and hunters.

Commissioner Timothy Layton, who represents Game Commission District 4, made that clear after hearing about the results of CWD testing across the state in the 2020-21 hunting seasons.

The Game Commission tested more than 12,000 whitetails for CWD in the 2020-21 license year. That’s more than most states were able to do given impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately, 218 of those deer were found to have CWD.