A Red Herring Swims Upstream

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A Red Herring Swims Upstream ©

By Jim Slinsky
05/19/07

Predictably, the state is in an uproar over the removal of Commissioner Tom Boop as President of the PGC Board of Commissioners (BOC). Recently, State Rep. Merle Philips and State Rep. Robert Belfanti, Jr. blasted the guilty Commissioners with their words from the House floor. My sources tell me the Executive Staff of the Agency is also quite upset over this political maneuver.

Rudimentary analysis of Commissioner Boop’s comments reveals he didn’t say anything that wasn’t within his rights to say. So why did Commissioners Schleiden, Palone, Isabella and Hill remove him? A simple explanation is also quite logical. The entire fiasco was planned as a diversion, a red herring as they say. Have you noticed we are no longer discussing the 865,000 doe permits, which are certain to decimate the remainder of our deer herd? Go to the Unified Sportsmen of PA’s website at www.unifiedsportsmenpa.org and watch the full fifty-minute video of the proceedings. Kangaroo Court was too kind a characterization.

While all of this is playing out something else is quietly happening without much discussion or debate. Elk are being spread from their original five county area to their new expanded range of twelve counties. Did anyone notice that the new elk range is precisely the same area where deer populations are being shot down into oblivion? Does everyone realize that elk and deer don’t mix? Elk are the bigger and the more dominant animal. Elk push deer out of the prime feeding areas and then, the secondary feeding areas. Wherever elk prosper, deer populations diminish. This has been happening out West for decades with mule deer populations in a continuous slide.

In wildlife management there is principle called “small population syndrome”. This occurs when the population of a species drops to a point that natural mortality is greater than all reproduction. This is precisely what happened to the eastern cougar. Numbers were reduced so low, the species could not sustain a core population and multiply. They are now extinct. Is this the plan for our whitetail deer in our northcentral counties? Will there come a time when hunting the northcentral will be a total lottery system for fifty elk permits with deer completely removed from the menu? Are we headed for a ban on rifles and rifle hunting? You kill turkey mostly with a shotgun, slugs are devastating on bear and slugs will certainly drop an elk. Is there gun control weaved into our deer management program?

With all the emotion surrounding Commissioner Boop’s removal some have pointed the finger at Governor Rendell as the architect of all the controversies. We know in our gut that firing a commissioner president is not a small event and it only seems logical for the low level operatives to have checked with the boss before proceeding. This week in a letter Robb Miller, Executive Director of the Governor’s Sportsmen Advisory Council went to great lengths to explain the Governor has no intention of becoming involved in this fiasco and certainly has no intention of firing Tom Boop as a Commissioner. I find Mr. Miller’s words intriguing because didn’t the firing of George Venesky establish that all PGC Commissioners “serve at the pleasure of the Governor”. Apparently, the Governor must be pleased at what is occurring. Meanwhile the homeboys have started a petition to remove PGC Commissioner Russ Schleiden. We shall see if the Governor responds to the desires of our sporting class.

To further prove my point, my intent this week was to write about the six pieces of curative legislation recently unanimously passed out of our House Game and Fisheries Committee. The members of this Committee must be commended for their dedicated effort to resolve the many problems at the PGC. I will provide more detail in my next column. However, even I have become sidetracked in the emotion of Tom Boop’s firing.

This entire matter may not be complicated at all. It may be as simple as a red herring trying to swim upstream.

Jim Slinsky is the host and producer of the “Outdoor Talk Network”, a nationally syndicated, outdoor-talk radio program. For a station near you or to contact Jim, visit his website at www.outdoortalknetwork.com.

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