Newspapers across the state buzzed this week with the announcement of Senate confirmation of Mr. Daniel Hill as the new PGC Commissioner for the Northwest replacing the retired Mr. Robert Gilford.  Mr. Hill is allegedly a lifelong hunter and fisherman and former Treasurer of PA Trout Unlimited.  Mr. David Schreffler is Governor Rendell’s pick for the Southwest replacing former Commissioner Mr. Samuel Dunkle.  Mr. Schreffler was not confirmed by the Senate yet because problems needed to be worked out according to one newspaper report.  (Hmmm, what problems?)  I saw Mr. Schreffler’s resume and he is a hunter, but he is also a member of the Nature Conservancy. 

            Frankly, we have every right to harbor reservations about the entire commissioner selection process.  We know nothing about these men.  Past and current affiliations are meaningless.  I have many acquaintances who actively hunt and fish.  Speak to them politically and one quickly realizes a few of them border on socialists.  Because one hunts and fishes is no indication that they understand hunting as an industry or the US Constitution for that matter.  A few of my hunting acquaintances have such poor analytical skills they couldn’t find their way out of a round room with one door.

Both of these men were interviewed and selected by the Governor’s Sportsmen’s Advisory Council chaired by my good buddy, Mr. Robb Miller.  I am certain Robb and his crew sent, in their judgment, the best candidate names to the Governor.  Let us not forget the Governor’s Council is part of DCNR and not the PGC.  The hunters across this state are having difficulty accepting that DCNR’s Secretary, Mr. Mike Dibernardinis interviewed these men before their names were accepted by the Governor.  This was a first in PA history.  The politics does seem to thicken with every step of the process.  One has to ask if DCNR actually picked these two PGC Commissioners because we know rank-and-file hunters had absolutely no input. 

All of which brings me to the point of this column.  The commissioner selection process is outdated, unresponsive, unfair to hunters and desperately needs a major overhaul.  Much to the disappointment of environmentalists, hunters and trappers are still the sole source of income for the Game Commission.  Incredibly, hunters have absolutely nothing to say about the commissioner selection process and thus, their future.

Let me quote the late Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, the first Executive Secretary of the PGC from 1898 to 1919.  In 1914 Dr. Kalbfus wrote, “I believe that sportsmen are better fitted to draft game laws than are scientists, or any other class of men.  Sportsmen in Pennsylvania today are not paupers; they are supplying the money through which protection is given not only to game, but also to song and insectivorous birds and the sportsmen’s ideas should be given consideration in matters of this character”.  Thank you, Dr. Kalbfus.

As you can see little has changed from 1914 to the present.  Hunters are still not trusted to be part of the decision process and regardless of hundreds of millions in financing, we are still fighting to have a say in the system.  The only real difference between then and now is that our sporting class of today is willing to use the court system to correct the injustices.

Unfortunately, we have no idea how these men will vote on the critical issues of our day.  We have just witnessed first-hand the political undermining of our current Board of Commissioners.  We have just witnessed dereliction of duties in the carte blanc passage of a deer eradication program.  We have just witnessed the PGC admission that we may not have had 1.6 million from the onset.

There is great irony in the chain of events we have endured in the last five years.  Years ago we saw the establishment of a commissioner system to protect wildlife decisions from corrupt political influences.  The system was designed specifically to keep politics out of resource management.

Today, we realize resource management has become entirely political and we lack the tools to purge the system of special interest corruption.  Long ago no consideration was given to create a safety valve in the event destructive political forces would gain control.  I contend that safety valve is hunters’ input into the commissioner selection process. 

Unfortunately, hunter input remains overdue by almost 100 years.    

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