USP Files Suit against the PGC for Injunctive Relief

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USP Files Suit against the PGC for Injunctive Relief ©

By Jim Slinsky
09/07/07

On September 7, 2007 the Unified Sportsmen of PA (USP) filed suit in PA Commonwealth Court requesting injunctive relief to save our public land deer herds. Unified is requesting all antlerless deer hunting cease on State Game Lands and State Forest Lands until such time the PGC can substantiate and justify the need to continue to decimate our public land deer. Unified is not requesting antlerless deer hunting cease on private land. Of course, USP was granted standing by the Court in their previously unsuccessful attempt to hold the PGC accountable for their statewide assault on our deer resource. At this time, it is believed this case will most likely proceed to depositions and oral arguments.

If you have been paying close attention the deer program has changed dramatically this year without a formal announcement. From the 1999/2000 mantra of “1.6 million deer” and the pending cataclysmic demise of our forested ecosystems to the current mantra of “healthy forests, healthy deer, reduced deer conflicts” the PGC has slowly distanced itself from numbers. Actually, Mr. Carl Roe, Executive Director of the PGC and other PGC personnel will readily admit they do not know how many deer we have. The instant comeback to such an admission has been, “then, why issue 865,000 doe permits if you don’t know what we have”. The PGC wants to talk “trends” and the hunters want to talk “numbers”. With luck the Court will direct the PGC to get back to basics. Science is numbers and no other method will be accepted by our hunters other than “quantitative” deer management. How many do we have and how many should we harvest is standard quantitative deer management in every state in the Union.

This new mantra and approach by the PGC is commonly referred to as “qualitative” deer management. This is a throwback to the days of looking at the woods and evaluating the plant life. If a plant is missing from the forest floor the only explanation is the deer must have consumed it. We have known all along that simply isn’t true. Many species of plants will not grow in our terribly acidic soils. Obviously, qualitative deer management is totally subjective, wide open to prejudice, ambiguous and anything, but scientific.

Another management parameter the PGC has been pushing as of late is reproduction. In theory, reducing deer populations was supposed to allow regeneration to explode creating new and abundant food and thus, deer reproduction would go up. Ironically, neither occurred. Regeneration did not explode and deer reproduction numbers actually went down slightly. In essence, the entire deer program has failed. Our long-standing reproduction numbers of 1.5 fawns per adult doe and 25% of our fawns breeding each year was healthy, normal and similar to most states around the country. It is only in farming regions where reproduction is greater.

When you put it all together the PGC is going down the tubes with our deer herd and the future of hunting in PA looks very bleak. The PGC is literally driving hunters out of the sport as they continuously move themselves closer to insolvency and ultimately, bankruptcy. This is for certain. What we don’t know for certain is who is actually driving this runaway train. Is Cal DuBrock, Bureau Chief of Wildlife at the PGC the mastermind of this ludicrous deer management or is policy being dictated to him? Do our Commissioners dictate policy to the PGC handed to them by the Administration through DCNR? Are we killing our deer to make room for the elk at the food bowl?

At this point the USP call for injunctive relief is certainly appropriate. We need to get to the bottom of this runaway agenda that seems to have no purpose except the eradication of our deer herd. USP must be commended for their tenacity and their courage to stand up and fight for sensible, credible and scientific deer management.

Unfortunately the PGC has brought this trouble upon themselves. They have ignored and criticized the USP for literally decades. They have pursued their own agenda at the expense of their primary supporters - Pennsylvania sportsmen. It should come as no surprise that sportsmen have turned to the courts for relief and will continue to do so until their voices are heard.

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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