This is a letter sent June 30 to United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania by new Game Commission board member David Putman regarding a controversial vote coming up next week.

To: Wes Waldron, President, United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania

From: David Putman, Game Commission board member

Wes,

I have been thinking about this issue quite a bit and have received a number of well written letters from both sides. I understand that the crossbow issue has raised a lot of passionate interest on both sides, and I am glad to see that we have so many people who are passionate about deer hunting. I have read the publication "Fundamentals of Crossbow Dynamics and Usage" that was provided to me by Kathy Davis. The copy of the document that I received did not have any information on the author or publisher, but I understand that it is an industry publication. I did not want to take a position on this issue until I heard from all sides, including the staff biologists. Most of the letters and calls I am getting are covering the same points and if any statistics are used, most come from the Fundamentals publication. I have not received any new issues related to crossbows in a while.

I can tell you that I am leaning strongly toward voting against the proposed changes to the crossbow regulations. My reasons are as follows:

1. I am concerned that a change in the regulations at this point will be a disservice to the people who have already purchased a license and equipment for the current season. The digest is published and a significant portion of our hunters will have purchased their licenses by the time of the July meeting. I know that it is difficult to take something away once you have "given" it, and that it would be easier to take away three weeks of crossbow hunting this year than next, but it still looks bad to me.

2. Predicted success rate. As for the number of crossbows being sold and the potential success of crossbow hunters vs vertical bow hunters, the numbers that are being selected from the Fundamentals article are only taken from crossbow use in Georgia. I have had the 50% success rate in Georgia quoted to me several times in addition to the quote in Tom's article. When I read the same publication I see that crossbow hunters in Georgia had a reported success rate of .49 and the vertical bow hunters had a success rate of .51. In Arkansas, the success was reported to be .21 for crossbows and .26 for vertical bows, in Ohio, the 2006 success was .21 for crossbows and .28 for vertical bows. What I conclude from reading the whole publication is that success rate for crossbows is actually less that that for vertical bows. The reported harvest rates for archers in Pennsylvania has never approached that of Georgia. I have talked to a number of people who have used crossbows and no one has told me that they felt that the crossbow was the ultimate weapon. The weight and awkward shape of the weapon somewhat offsets the advantage of not having to hold the draw. It still boils down to having to sit patiently in a good spot until a deer comes in range.

3. 100,000 new hunters in the woods. While some people are decrying the influx of new hunters in the fall, I see this as good news. If we can get that many people to return to hunting that would be a good thing. I have heard a lot of figures on this issue. One of them is that up to 70% of the people buying crossbows are reported to already own a bow. Some percentage of the new crossbow hunters will be old compound bow hunters and so the number of vertical bow hunters will drop, at least initially.

4. Our aging hunter population. The use of crossbows will certainly extent the number of years that our aging hunter population can participate in the sport. My father passed away several years ago, but he did hunt deer with a crossbow in his later years and got tremendous enjoyment from it. I know that the permit system provided for him to do that, however there are quite a few people who will not go through the permit system even though they can easily qualify for one.

5. Impact on recovering deer populations. PGC staff have said that the deer population is regulated by the antlerless population and that they will monitor the harvest and adjust the antlerless allocations if the data supports changes. The only resource concern could be the harvest of antlered deer before the rut. PGC staff biologists have looked at this issue and do not believe that this will occur. Other states with similar seasons have not experienced this and even in states with similar deer and hunter populations that have rifle seasons overlapping the rut have not reported a problem.

6. Impact on current vertical bow hunters. Much concern has been expressed about the current vertical bow hunters paying a price if the crossbow hunters take too many deer, but the fact is that all hunters will be competing for the same pool of antlerless licenses as they are currently competing for. Harvest is regulated by tags, not the number of opportunities to fill a tag. This gives our hunters one more opportunity to get out in the woods and enjoy what you know is one of the best times of the year. The biggest impact that I see is the perception that the fall woods will get more crowded and detract from the potential success of the vertical bow hunters. While few people are saying that outright to me in the letters, I sense that it is an issue with most of the people who have contacted me. I understand and appreciate the passion involved and can even remember some of the names that were thrown around during the days when compound bows were being introduced. The long bow and recurved bow guys did not think that the compound bows resembled a traditional bow any more than a spear resembled a 30:06.

7. Impact on black bear population. While I represent the northcentral counties and can not speak for the rest of the state, my feeling is that controlling the black bear population in the northcentral will be the next big issue for the PGC. I have received more comments and complaints about the black bears in the past month than any other subject. The hunters are pointing out the large number of fawns that are being taken by bears. One guy told me that he has seen 30 bears this spring and not one fawn. I just put up an electric fence to keep the bears and porcupines off of my camp porch. With that being said I will welcome a significant increase in the archery bear harvest in the northcentral part of the state.

8. Start gradually and collect data. I do not think that everything we do should necessarily be a science fair project. There is a time for caution and there is a time for making our best judgement based on past experiences and going forward with appropriate monitoring. I believe that staff has looked at the experience in other states and in our own special regulation areas and made a judgement that the inclusion of crossbows with regular archery will not result in an unacceptable risk to the deer resource. I know that the vertical bow seasons have gone through quite a few gradual changes as they matured, and I think that in hindsight, most of those little steps should have occurred on day 1. The cautious approach only slowed the enjoyment of the sport for a lot of people. We are dealing with a very resilient resource here and in the highly unlikely event that we over harvest deer in a WMU due to the addition of crossbows, the staff will adjust the antlerless allocations.

Wes, I know you are a conservationists and have fought many good fights. I do not like to be on the opposite side from you on any issue. I have a hard time remembering the early days of bow hunting, because I was only three years old in 1951. I do believe that we are not dealing with a resource issue here as much as a perception that an influx of 100,000 heathens will diminish the enjoyment and success of the archers who have worked for the past 58 years to get us where we are. I am hopeful that we will expand the opportunity for some who are no longer able to quite pull the compound bow to keep up with the sport and to permit others who do not have the time to practice sufficiently to take up the sport. I know that there will be some who will be irresponsible as there have been since man has been on this earth. We see it in every sport from archery to football to cards. I hope that we can work together to minimize this, rather than fight over it. UBP has been a leader in this area and I hope that will continue.

I will support adequate data collection as we go forward to assess the impacts of including crossbows. I will always welcome your views and advice. The views in this letter are mine alone and I have had almost no discussion with the other Commissioners on this issue. I will copy them with this to let them know my views.

Sincerely,

Dave Putnam