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By now you have heard our PGC Commission
meeting did not go well. Our Commissioners did not
respond to the statewide outcry to curtail the doe
killing. In reality, they made a number of changes to
increase the pressure on our deer herd. If the
proposals pass again in April, we will have an early
rifle doe season for seniors and juniors. DMAP
applicants will also receive two doe permits instead of
one. There were various other changes and I recommend
you read the press release on the PGC website.
Obviously, it is time to take off the gloves.
Commissioners Steve Mohr and Tom Boop put up
a struggle, but were outvoted 4 to 2. Clearly,
Commissioner Russ Schleiden has control of Commissioners
Roxane Palone, John Riley, and Gregory Isabella.
Speaking of Palone and Isabella, they were late for the
meeting. This has become a pattern for Commissioner
Isabella. He seems to have continuous business
conflicts. The solution is simple. If he is that busy
with his business, he should resign. We need
Commissioners that can attend the meeting on time and
sit in their chair for the full proceedings. Part-time
attendance is an insult and trivializes our opinions.
Furthermore, we don’t care about football scores. We
care about our hunting tradition.
If you are looking for reasons for the
genocide against our deer herd, it is complex, yet quite
simple. DCNR is unquestionably the epicenter of the
“kill the deer” agenda. DCNR houses all three
combatants, forestry, environmental extremists and
pro-merger/anti-hunting hopefuls. It is DCNR with the
help of Dr. Gary Alt that has created and perpetuated
this battle cry that deer are destroyers of our
environment. We have soils that test in the pH range of
3, but our agencies have decided to eradicate our deer
to overcome that problem. Fascinating.
Within the Commission, Russ Schleiden is
obviously the epicenter of the “kill the deer” agenda.
I have invested many hours speaking with Russ Schleiden,
but he is rigid and inflexible. He is going to see the
Gary Alt plan through. I find this amusing because we
were never told exactly what is the Gary Alt plan. We
can only ascertain from circumstantial evidence that it
is a total destruction of our deer herd. There has been
no relief as harvest numbers continue to plummet and
deer sightings vanish.
A truly tragic consequence of this entire
matter is the economic collapse of our rural
communities. Deer hunting was a vital bump to the
economy of our rural communities and rural businesses.
They are now on the verge of collapse. Our hunters are
avowing to never go back and our rural businesses are
closing-up shop. I fear we will see a rash of
foreclosures, bankruptcies and sell-outs in rural PA. I
suspect the conversion of our rural communities to
“ghost towns” is actually part of the plan. It sure
will depopulate the area and make room for elk, mountain
lions and timber wolves. The state will have a field
day buying out the new crop of “willing sellers”.
An objective analysis of our situation
reveals our PGC Commissioners were actually derelict in
their duties to the state. The Commissioner system was
constructed to consider biological, social, economic and
recreational factors when setting seasons and bag
limits. Our Commissioners considered nothing except
Gary Alt’s “hunches” on the condition of our deer herd.
This is malfeasance in office. When this settles out we
need to remove four Commissioners and a host of others
that brought us this program.
Incredibly, our last hope to save our deer
hunting tradition is the Unified Sportsmen of PA’s
lawsuit. We must stop the killing and force the PGC and
DCNR to do a comprehensive statewide deer census.
Science is numbers and we have proceeded long enough
without accurate numbers. A census will quickly reveal
our deer numbers are far below PGC projections. It will
become quickly apparent that deer are not the cause of
our collapsing forests. We can then move on to solve
our true forest problems.
Go to
www.unifiedsportsmenpa.org and print
off a sign-on sheet. A “Legal Defense Fund” has been
established to finance the effort to save our deer
herd. Take that sheet to your legislators and ask them
to sign on. You will quickly determine if he/she is our
friend or our foe. It is unfortunate that this entire
matter has become so vile we must turn to the courts.
In reality, the anti-hunting/anti-deer
forces have forced our hand. The lawsuit is merely a
civil method of finally drawing a line in the sand.
Jim Slinsky is the host
and producer of the "Sportsman’s Connection", a
nationally syndicated, outdoor-talk radio program. For a
station near you or to contact Jim, visit his website at
www.outdoortalknetwork.com |
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