Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020 - 12

ons, Kalbfus supported bounties.
Three years later, campaigning in his
1910 agency annual report for a return of
bounty appropriations from the General
Assembly, Kalbfus reported "a generous
bounty for the extermination of vermin of
all kinds" is a solution to the state's deficit
game populations, particularly quail.
His comments reflect an attitude that
dominated conservation at the time: killing feral cats and large predators would
save songbirds and small game.
It wasn't an accurate assessment, but
it was popular.
Through the early 20th century, some
counties continued bounties, paying for
them entirely, according to Seth Gordon,
the Game Commission's third executive
secretary. Occasionally the Commonwealth would provide appropriations, but
it wasn't often, he wrote in the January
1923 edition of American Wildlife magazine.

ANOTHER APPROACH
Without the ability to set its own regulations and operating with a limited annual
appropriation from the General Assembly, the Game Commission got into the
wildlife-management business by working with legislators to make stronger game
laws and establishing a law-enforcement
presence in Penn's Woods. From there, the
agency considered propagating game, but
opted for state game refuges, which were
started in 1905.
Refuges made more sense, according
to Game Commissioner John Phillips,
whose service began in 1905. They could
provide absolute protection and the "systematic extermination of vermin," he said.
In 1906, the Game Commission began
stocking whitetails and quail, and started
to trap-and-transfer wild turkeys. With
time, rabbits, squirrels, even ring-necked
12

pheasants, would be released. Many other
species would follow.
For years, the Game Commission's
ambition to do more was hindered by
limited funding. That changed, on April
17, 1913, when legislation to create the
state's first hunting license was passed
by the General Assembly and signed
into law by Gov. John K. Tener, after a
lengthy battle.
But tucked away in that legislative
package, among the directions it offered
for how license monies would be spent,
was a mandate for the Game Commission
to pay bounties, an agency first. Bounties
were back and no longer tied to General
Assembly appropriations. But their details
were vague yet.
Then in Act 467 of July 25, 1913, the
legislature created a new bounty list: wildcat, $4 bounty; gray fox, $2; weasel, $2;
goshawk, 50 cents; sharp-shinned hawk,
50 cents; and great horned owl, 50 cents.
Kalbfus voiced his disapproval of the
bird bounties and succeeded in having
them struck in follow-up legislation, Act
126 of 1915, which fixed bounties on
wild cats at $6, added red foxes to the list
through a $2 bounty for all foxes; and
set a $1 bounty for weasels and minks.
County officials and justices of the peace
were empowered to pay claims to be
reimbursed by the Game Commission.
Claims were validated by cutting off the
animals' ears and burning its pelt.
It took two years to establish a bountyreimbursement procedure through legislation. At about the same time, the state
Auditor General and the Game Commission started to probe widespread reports
of bounty fraud. Reimbursement was held
until their investigations were completed.
"Prior to the passage of this act, no
one could, under any condition of circumstances, have made me believe that

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020

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