PGC Strikes Again

State Representative Dave Maloney (R-Berks), Chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, has been concerned with the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s (PGC) “management” of a number of things. One is that the PGC was found to be sitting on more than $72 million in escrow funds in 2019, including more than $6 million the PGC didn’t even know it had. Another is the moving of the rifle deer opener to Saturday, despite much opposition from the hunting community. The ruffed grouse population is at a 70-year low. (These are all problems I have written about previously.)

The May 12, 2023, issue of “Pennsylvania Outdoor News” included an article pointing to yet another concern Maloney has to consider. According to “PON” capital correspondent, Tom Venesky, Maloney is questioning the PGC’s February trip to the national convention of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Maloney filed a right-to-know request “seeking information from the Game Commission on costs and number of employees attending the convention.”

Maloney found that “33 agency employees traveled to the convention at a total cost of more than $56,000,” maybe $10,000 more. Among these were Executive Director Bryan Burhans, three members of the Board of Commissioners, legislative liaison Josh Zimmerman, and others from several PGC divisions. According to Venesky, Rep. Maloney discovered the average cost per person for the 28 employees for which data was available was $2,002.

(One board member, President Kristen Schnepp-Giger, handled her own arrangements for the trip. She was once employed by the NWTF as a biologist!)

PGC spokesman Travis Lau tried to put a positive spin on the agency’s attendance, noting that the PGC has sent varying numbers of employees to the convention “since at least 1999.” He said that about half of the PGC employees in attendance manned the PGC’s booth. He said they stayed up to date with various facets of wild turkey management. He added that half the money for trip expenses came from Pittman-Robertson funds, which is “allowable.”(I wonder if some second-gobbler-tag money was also used to help pay for the excursion.)

Maloney questioned the need for the large number of employees going to Nashville. While there, the “employees were away from their jobs…leaving a void while they were gone.” He suggested that 33 attending “makes it seem like the agency made a giant party out of it.”

I wonder what kind of turkey habitat improvements could have been made with the money the PGC spent on the commission members and employees who attended the convention. Hmmm, it looks like the rogue agency has struck again.