HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A state court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer-management program, saying the sportsmen's group that sued lacks a legal foundation for its claim.

The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania asked the Commonwealth Court to order specific changes in the program, including an immediate end to doe hunting pending a scientific study, on grounds that the current rules threaten to decimate the herd.

But a three-judge panel said the game commission is legally required to manage the deer and has discretion over how to do that. The panel said the sportsmen's group cannot use the courts to change policies it disagrees with.

Members of the group, which claims to represent more than 40,000 hunters and outdoorsmen, "do not aver the game commission failed to exercise its discretion; rather, they seek to compel the exercise of discretion in a specific manner," Judge Robert Simpson said in a 12-page decision.

The commission hailed the ruling as judicial recognition that the deer-management program "is being conducted in a sound, methodical and scientific manner."

"Our hope is that this ruling will cease the unnecessary expenditure of sportsmen's dollars and tax dollars fighting frivolous and ill-conceived lawsuits," Carl G. Roe, the commission's director, said in a written statement.

Don Bailey, a Harrisburg lawyer representing the sportsmen's group, said his client will likely appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The lawsuit, originally filed in August 2005 and since amended, was part of a campaign by some hunters to increase the deer population -- pitting them against state officials, conservationists and farmers who warned of the environmental dangers of overpopulation.