Deer plan audit will find strengths and weaknesses
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Both the Pennsylvania Game Commission and hunters who oppose the agency's deer management plan may be disappointed with parts of a long-awaited audit of the plan, which will be made available to the public Tuesday in Harrisburg.
A source close to the report, who requested anonymity because the audit remains confidential, said it challenges the agency's implementation of parts of the program, concurs with some elements of the plan and stops short of recommending the plan be scrapped.
The audit was conducted by the Washington D.C.-based Wildlife Management Institute and commissioned by the House Game and Fisheries Committee in response to continuing hunter dismay over a deer management policy that intentionally reduced the number of deer in parts of the state.
A point of contention has been reporting of the actual number of white-tailed deer. The audit is expected to address the commission's possession of internal quantitative deer-count estimates while releasing only qualitative harvest-impact estimates to the public. The report also addresses:
• Methods of gathering deer-count information, including the collection of hunter harvest reports. Alternative counting procedures are recommended.
• Public input in the plan, which is found to be ample, but citizen advisory committees are said to be insufficiently objective.
• The commission's deer management goals, which are said to be consistent with the agency's constitutional mandate to manage wildlife for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians, not just for the hunters who fund the agency.
• Deer over-browsing, confirmed as a major cause of poor forest regeneration in the state.
• Size and number of Wildlife Management Units and the role of DMAP and red tag programs in providing micro-management within the larger units.
First Published February 14, 2010 12:00 am
