Hunting & Trapping Digest 2008-2009 - (Page 55) DMAP ALLOWS HUNTERS TO ASSIST LANDOWNERS The Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) is intended to provide an additional tool for landowners to achieve deer impacts consistent with land use goals on their properties. Landowner applications must be submitted by July 1. All public lands, private landowners or lessees where no fee is charged for hunting, and any defined hunting club are eligible for the program. A hunting club is defined as a corporation or legal cooperative that has its enrolled acres in fee title, was established prior to January 1, 2000, and has provided its club charter and list of current members to the Commission. Qualified landowners will be issued DMAP coupons at a rate of up to one coupon for each five acres of land enrolled where deer are impacting cultivated crops, fruit trees or vegetables, or one coupon for each 50 acres of land enrolled in all other cases. Landowners enrolled in DMAP are responsible for issuing DMAP coupons to licensed hunters who in turn will apply to the Game Commission for the DMAP Harvest Permit. Hunters can now get two DMAP coupons per property. Hunters can send more than one application in an envelope and the check can be made out for the total amount. The fee for a DMAP Harvest Permit is $10 for a resident, $35 for a nonresident, payable at time of application to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Enrolled landowners also are responsible for distributing a map clearly depicting property boundaries. Landowners are to mark their approved DMAP land boundaries as indicated on their application by using natural features, signs or flagging. Contact information for all public lands enrolled in DMAP will be posted on the Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us). Contact information for private landowners enrolled in DMAP will be posted on the PGC website with permission of the landowner. Hunting may take place during all seasons for the taking of antlerless deer by using the sporting arm and/or implement allowed during that season. The hunter must be properly licensed for the season, for example, archery or muzzleloading licenses required during those seasons. Antlerless deer may also be taken in WMUs 2D, 2G, 3C & 4B during the antlered only firearms season on Dec. 1-5 by DMAP permit holders only. Each DMAP Harvest Permit is good for the taking of one antlerless deer only on the property for which the permit was issued. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), bureaus of Forestry and State Parks are participating in the DMAP program. Most state forests and some state parks totaling thousands of acres are participating, and for more information visit DCNR’s website at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/. Reporting is mandatory for all DMAP Harvest Permits issued. Hunters who receive a DMAP Harvest Permit are required to submit a report card no matter if successful or not in harvesting an antlerless deer. Hunters who receive coupons must send the coupons to the Game Commission Headquarters in Harrisburg to receive a DMAP permit. CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE (CWD) AND THE PGC PARTS BAN CWD has not been found in Pennsylvania. To help prevent it from entering the state, the PGC has issued a ban on the importation of specific cervid carcass parts from states and provinces where CWD has been found in the wild. Hunters harvesting deer, elk or moose in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and New York (CWD containment area only) and West Virginia (Hampshire County only), may not bring back into Pennsylvania: the head (including brain, tonsils, eyes and retropharyngeal lymph nodes), spinal cord/backbone, spleen, skull plate with attached antlers if visible brain or spinal cord material is present, cape if visible brain or spinal cord material is present, upper canine teeth if root structure or other soft material is present, any object or article containing visible brain or spinal cord material, unfinished taxidermy mounts or brain-tanned hides of any deer, elk or moose. Bring back only cut and wrapped meat, boned meat, animal quarters or other pieces with no portion of the spinal column or head attached, hides without the head, cleaned skull plates (no meat or nervous system tissue attached), antlers with no meat or tissue attached, upper canine teeth and finished taxidermy mounts. Pennsylvania hunters heading to a state or Canadian province with a history of CWD should become familiar with that area’s wildlife regulations and guidelines for the transportation of harvested game animals and CWD testing procedures. It is strongly recommended that hunters get their animals tested for CWD if hunting in a CWD positive state. If after returning to Pennsylvania a hunter is notified by another wildlife agency where they had hunted that their game tested positive for CWD, the hunter is encouraged to contact the Game Commission for further instructions. For more information on CWD visit the Game Commission website at www.pgc.state.pa.us and click on “CWD Update.” http://www.pgc.state.pa.us http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/ http://www.pgc.state.pa.us
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