Outdoors Notebook: Crossbows placed in crosshairs, again
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At its winter meeting next week, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will cross-reference archery license sales, crossbow-user harvest reports, deer population estimates and other data to get a snapshot of the crossbow's impact on deer. At issue is the sunset date applied to the controversial 2009 decision making crossbows legal statewide during all rifle and archery deer seasons, rifle and archery bear seasons and turkey seasons. As part of the vote, the board stipulated that the sporting arm's impact on wildlife populations was to be evaluated before June 30, 2012.
A preliminary look at resident archery license sales shows a 2.86 percent increase following the crossbow vote, from 277,393 (June 12, 2010-Dec. 31, 2010) to 285,244 (June 13, 2011-Dec. 31, 2011). The total estimated deer harvest increased slightly, from 308,920 in 2009-2010 to 316,240 in 2010-2011.
Can't make it to Harrisburg? The meeting will be webcast Jan. 30-31 at www.pgc.state.pa.us .
Stonycreek River, with a drainage of some 460 square miles in Cambria and Somerset counties, was recently named Pennsylvania River of the Year, via a public vote on the Internet.
The designation raises awareness of the river, its comeback from industrial abuse, current conservation needs and recreational value. Largely through the work of local groups since the late 1980s, more than $10 million was spent on abatement projects and passive treatment systems.
Len Lichvar , now a Fish and Boat commissioner, was active in the river's rehabilitation.
"The Stonycreek River water chemistry has been reversed," he said, "from a net acidic river to a net alkaline river that has enabled aquatic life to once again flourish in water that was nearly devoid of such life for 100 years."
First Published January 22, 2012 12:00 am
