On March 3, the House Game and Fisheries Committee held two information meetings to discuss the 2020 annual reports from the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission.

As you might expect, a big part of the discussion with both agencies was how they adapted their operations to respond to the COVID pandemic.

In both cases, the Commissions saw a dramatic increase in outdoor activity and in people taking advantage of online and social media platforms for education and other activities.

Game Commission

Here are some quick takeaways from the Game Commission meeting--

-- Staff Kept Going: Within 48 hours of the governor’s mandatory closure, the Game Commission was able to equip essential employees with laptops to keep all critical operations up and running. In fact, key business functions, such as license sales and law enforcement continued without interruption.

-- Innovative Education: Staff developed and launched the Wildlife on WiFi, or WoW, an innovative program to provide home-based learning content during the state’s stay-at-home orders. This innovative program has received national recognition and was recently awarded the Stephen Kellert Award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, as well as the 2021 Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Educators “Outstanding Environmental Education Program.”

-- Dramatic Increase In Use: With the pandemic forcing many forms of recreation and entertainment to shut down, visitors to our state game lands system increased dramatically. For many, spending time hunting, hiking, and birdwatching on a game lands represented one of the few activities in which they could legally and safely participate.

The increased use on those game lands demonstrated the importance of the 100 years of investments made by hunters, trappers, and conservation partners in acquiring and maintaining these public lands.

-- Chronic Wasting Disease: Expansion of the Wildlife Futures Program, a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, focused on establishing a state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratory for Chronic Wasting Disease surveillance, which reduced by almost 50 percent the turnaround time for testing samples submitted by hunters, from 15 days in 2019 to 9 days in 2020 and implemented a new CWD plan.

-- Sunday Hunting Success: The Game Commission supports opening additional Sundays to hunting and welcomes the opportunity to work with this Committee to craft legislation giving full authority to the Board of Commissioners to offer additional Sunday hunting opportunities. This year’s Sunday hunting opportunities were extremely popular with our hunters, and we did not see any substantial issues occur on these Sundays.

-- Decreased Oil & Gas Revenues: The Commission is projecting a decrease in revenue from oil-and-gas-development on game lands which will require us to pull over $11 million from our reserve so we don’t have to reduce services. We are projecting to pull an additional $15 million from reserve for the 2021-2022 fiscal year and slightly over $9 million from reserve for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

-- Modernizing Hunting Licenses: The Commission also hopes to work with the General Assembly on legislation to modernize hunting licenses to increase customer service.

Click Here for Testimony.  Click Here for 2020 Annual Report.

Fish & Boat Commission

-- Opening Day: The Commission took calculated and decisive action by cancelling our Mentored Youth Days, prohibiting the use of outside volunteers, and announcing the early statewide opening of trout season on the morning of April 7, 2020.

This unexpected announcement came on a weekday, designed to effectively spread out crowds over several days while we continued to encourage anglers to fish on local waters.

This decision may have broken with long-standing tradition, but it kept anglers safe, which continues to be our highest priority.  At the end of the day, most anglers were just happy to be back on the water

--  Silver Lining: The silver lining with the pandemic is that outdoor recreation continues to experience a nationwide surge in participation unlike anything we have seen in decades. It really is a game changer, not just for our agency, but for the outdoor recreation industry and economy.

In 2020, the Commission saw a 20 percent increase in fishing license sales, which was even higher than the national average of 14 percent.

In total, Pennsylvania now has over 980,000 licensed anglers, the most since 1995.

Boating also exploded in popularity, particularly with kayaks, canoes, and other unpowered watercraft.

The Commission’s launch permits, which are required to use both PFBC and DCNR facilities, saw a 36 percent increase in 2020, for a total of 166,000 active permits. It is tough to find a local outfitter or sporting goods store that can keep kayaks on their shelves these days, and we consider that to be a good thing.

-- Habitat Restoration: The Commission was able to significantly ramp up lake and stream habitat work, which not only helps sustain healthy fish populations, but also is a highly cost-effective way to improve water quality.

At the end of 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced they were awarding the Commission the first installment of a multi-year investment to create a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Habitat Unit.

This new work unit consists of four full-time fisheries biologists and four seasonal fisheries biologist aides who assist landowners with implementing best management practices to reduce nutrients and sediment in streams, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.

This includes riparian buffer plantings and installation of instream habitat structures that reduce bank erosion and sedimentation and serve to enhance fish habitat and fishing opportunities.

In 2020, the unit completed 16 projects, enhancing nearly 3 miles of stream in nine counties and will continue this important work during the upcoming field season.

-- Addressing Infrastructure: The Commission has embarked on a $26 million plan to upgrade aging infrastructure like access areas and hatcheries, eliminate our backlog of deferred maintenance, and replace unserviceable and aging vehicles and equipment.

In addition, Gov. Wolf approved the release of $23.8 million in capital budget funding as part of a comprehensive, multi-year $43.5 million plan to repair another 10 hazardous dams

-- Personnel: The Commission is close to restoring our full complement of 100 Waterways Conservation Officers statewide, many of whom were covering multiple counties and districts.

-- Invasive Species: Invested in a dedicated Aquatic Invasive Species coordinator who is taking a lead role in the ongoing fight against the devastating effects of species like hydrilla, Asian carp, zebra mussels, and northern snakeheads. These species, if left unchecked, can destroy local ecosystems and ruin fishing and boating opportunities.

Click Here for Testimony.  Click Here for 2020 Annual Report

To watch videos of the information meetings, visit the Committee video webpage.

Rep. Keith Gillespie (R-York) serves as Majority Chair of the House Game and Fisheries Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-705-7167 or send email to: kgillesp@pahousegop.com.  Rep. Ed Neilson (D-Philadelphia) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-772-4032 or send email to: eneilson@pahouse.net. 

NewsClips:

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