Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 40

MARCH COMMISSIONERS MEETING

Final 2017-18 hunting seasons adopted

Changes to bear archery, firearms deer, and late grouse seasons.
The Pennsylvania Board of Game
Commissioners in March gave final approval to hunting and trapping seasons
and bag limits for the 2017-18 license
year.
The statewide archery deer season
runs from Sept. 30-Nov. 11. The statewide general bear season will be Nov.
18-22.
Deer seasons are a split, five-day
antlered deer season (Nov. 27-Dec. 1)
and seven-day concurrent season (Dec.
2-9) in 20 Wildlife Management Units.
They are WMUs 1A, 1B, 2A, 2C, 2D,
2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4B,
4C, 4D, 4E, 5A and 5B.
The package also retains the twoweek (Nov. 27-Dec. 9) concurrent,
antlered and antlerless deer season in
WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D.
Other highlights in the new slate of
seasons were: moving the statewide
archery bear season to the next-to-thelast week of the archery deer season;
changing the firearms deer season in
Wildlife Management Units 5A and 5B
to bucks-only hunting from the opening
day through the first Friday; opening
a conservative mid-week fall turkey
season in Wildlife Management Area
5B, and reducing the season length in
WMUs 4A, 4B and 4E; eliminating the
post-Christmas segment of the ruffedgrouse season to improve adult survival
due to recent population declines. Other
changes included restoring an extended
black-bear season in WMU 3A; and
re-establishing statewide put-and-take
bobwhite quail hunting with a longer
season and larger bag limit.
40

Other meeting highlights
* The commissioners took preliminary
action to ensure deer hunters in the Southeast Special Regulations Area will continue
to have the option to apply for permits to use
mechanical feeders to dispense bait at hunting
locations on private property.
The board first voted to create deerattractant permits in 2014, but attached to the
measure a sunset clause that would force the
board to revisit the issue by July 2017.
The board at its June meeting will vote to
finalize removal of the sunset clause,
* Training dogs on small game is now
prohibited on state game lands for about three
weeks in the fall, based on a plan that serves
to keep pheasants near their release sites.
The Board of Game Commissioners gave
final approval to a regulation that closes
small-game dog training on game lands from
the Monday prior to the start of the youth
pheasant season until the opening day of the
statewide pheasant season. The regulation
does not limit dog training on any other public
or private lands, and the board hopes it will
result in more pheasant awaiting hunters on
game lands.
* Wildlife Conservation Officers now have
the authority to stop unlicensed drivers from
unlawfully driving on game lands.
The Commissioners adopted a regulation
that mandates all vehicles on state game lands
must be registered under the state's Vehicle
Code and operated by licensed drivers.
* The boundary between Wildlife Management Units 2C and 2E will change for the
2017-18 hunting and trapping seasons.
U.S. Route 22 is the new boundary between WMUs 2E and 2C. Previously, the
boundary had followed U.S. Route 22, as well
and U.S. Routes 422 and 219.
The change makes for an easier-to-follow
boundary that expands WMU 2E southward
into WMU 2C.
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017

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