The Game Commission is seeking public input on its draft peregrine falcon management plan, which can be reviewed on the agency's website. 

Public comments on the peregrine management plan will be accepted until May 29 through the website; an email address – peregrinecomments@pa.gov; or by U.S. Mail to: Peregrine Falcon Management Plan, Game Commission, 2001 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9797.

"We are seeking public comment on the peregrine falcon management plan to ensure the final management plan considers all meaningful input and concerns about this species put forth by Pennsylvanians," said Calvin W. DuBrock, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife Management director. "As written, the plan is science-based, progressive and promotes responsible management of peregrine falcons.  We're interested in hearing from Pennsylvanians who would like to offer comments, and to see if we've missed something or if they share our management vision for the future."

Developed by biologists with the agency's Wildlife Diversity Division, the peregrine falcon management plan establishes management goals through 2021. The mission of this plan is to restore peregrines to their ecological role, maintain a self-sustaining population and provide the public with the opportunity to enjoy them.

"The criteria to consider peregrines recovered is a self-perpetuating nesting population of at least 22 pairs with a productivity rate of at least 1.5 fledglings per nesting pair and half of nests successful over a three-year period," said Dan Brauning , Wildlife Diversity Division chief and co-author of the management plan.

The peregrine falcon was removed from the federal endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999, because delisting goals had been achieved, but they remain listed as a “state endangered species” in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s breeding population of peregrines numbered as many as 44 pairs in the early decades of the 20th century before completely disappearing from the eastern United States. The decline of the species here, and worldwide, is largely attributed to poisoning from DDT and other organochloride pesticides.

The Peregrine Fund pioneered the reintroduction of this federally endangered species into the eastern United States. It used three reintroduction locations in Pennsylvania during the 1970s and 1980s, and the Game Commission released birds at four locations in the state during the 1990s. 

By 2003, the eastern United States population had grown to more than 330 nesting pairs; by 2012 at least 32 nests were known in Pennsylvania.

For more information, visit the Game Commission’s Endangered Species webpage.

5/6/2013