Game Commission Launches Third Round Of Deer Management Open Houses

For the third consecutive year, the Game Commission is hitting the road to bring deer management open houses to communities throughout the Commonwealth.

 

"Here's your chance to interact with a deer biologist, or State Game Land manager, or forester," explained Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe. "And hopefully, one of the open houses will be close to your home. The goal here is to reach out to Pennsylvanians, both figuratively and literally. We hope that every person who attends an open house can better identify with our deer management program upon leaving."

 

Open houses will be held in six different locations from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a Saturday to maximize the opportunity for those interested in attending, and are being held in different locations than the two previous rounds to afford residents in other areas of the state to attend--

 

-- February 28, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Butler City Hunting and Fishing Club, East Butler, Butler County.

-- March 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Towanda Rod and Gun Club, near Wysox, Bradford County.

 

-- March 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at South Strabane Township Fire Station #2, located at 172 Oak Springs Road, Washington, Washington County.

 

-- March 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Quality Inn, 13015 Ferguson Valley Road, Burnham, Mifflin County.

 

-- March 28, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ives Run Area Visitor Center (Hammond Dam Facility), Tioga, Tioga County.

 

-- April 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Delaware Valley College, James Work Gymnasium, 700 E. Butler Ave., Doylestown, Bucks County.

 

Directions to each open house are available online.

 

Open houses are used by the agency as an interactive public outreach tool that employs multimedia presentations, exhibits and wildlife managers to bring both the nuts-and-bolts and finer details of deer management to hunters, farmers and others whose lives are influenced by deer.

 

The effort emphasizes bringing this powerful communications and educational tool to residents as a means to further the general public's understanding of deer and deer management. The approach is bolstered by having agency employees on hand to engage participants who attend the open houses.

Open houses provide a means to cover wide-ranging topics through specialized stations set-up in a large hall. Stations are spaced out so participants who have questions and/or comments for station attendants can communicate in a one-on-one exchange without interruptions and with the expectation of getting answers immediately.

 

-- Goals that Direct the Deer Program – Outlining the five goals of the deer management program;

 

-- Management Goals are a Product of Public Input – Focuses on the participating stakeholders who were involved in developing the current deer plan goals;

 

-- Where do you hunt? – Helps hunters take a critical look at the characteristics of habitat through visual representation;

 

-- Deer Necessities - Identifies the preferences that guide deer in selecting habitat;

 

-- Habitat Variability – Focuses on how habitat health is rated differently from one Wildlife Management Unit to another;

 

-- Telemetry Study – Sheds light on the dispersal of young male deer;

 

-- Deer Aging – Allows participants to learn how deer are aged through tooth wear; and

 

-- Deer Management DVD - Nonstop presentation of the agency's recently-produced deer management DVD, free copies of which will be available to open house visitors.

 

These deer management open houses and the outreach information available at them were developed by a Deer Communications Working Group, which was created in 2007 to improve the agency's efforts to explain deer management – and the need for it – to Pennsylvanians.

 

"This group has made tremendous progress in bringing the public up to speed on how and why we manage deer," Roe explained. "They meet regularly and have developed displays, brochures, a new video and whitetail website, employee training and many other tools to help in the never-ending effort of explaining deer management to both the public and fellow employees. But despite all that has been accomplished in recent years, there is still much, much more to do."

 

For more information, visit the Game Commission's  Deer Management Program webpage