Change tradition? Or create opportunity?

Pennsylvania Game Commission officials met Tuesday to discuss and set the 2019-2020 hunting and trapping season dates. The hot button topic? Changing the opening day of the state’s rifle season on white-tailed deer to the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, instead of the traditional opening day, the first Monday after Thanksgiving.

Game Commission officials decided it was worth it to change tradition, saying it would help build the state’s hunting heritage. Season opening and closing dates will be officially approved at the PGC’s April meeting.

Opinions from hunters vary. Many of the state’s hunters say that they should also be able to hunt on Sundays, but that’s not a decision the PGC can make. Sunday hunting is prohibited by Pennsylvania Title 34 of the state game law; the prohibition can only be removed by legislation.

Pine Grove hunter Craig Morgan, retired, past director of the Schuylkill Conservation District, is in favor of the change.

“Saturday opener, you bet, and then Sunday when legislators pass it,” Morgan said. “Gives kids, college students and working people more time to hunt and that’s what it’s all about for those of us who love to mentor kids.”

Some need more time to digest the idea.

“I have mixed emotions about it — on one hand I like that they’re trying to make the opener more accessible to people that may not be able to take time off from work, college students and youth,” said Jason Krause, Krause Taxidermy, Pine Grove. “But without Sunday hunting opportunities I don’t really know if one day is going to bring throngs of people back to the sport.”

Dave Andrews of Andrews Archery in Frackville said the change will mean an extremely-crowded opening day, and fewer numbers on Monday, the traditional opener, and the next Saturday.

“I guess the woods will be a lot more crowded. Everybody will probably be able to get out the first day,” Andrews said. “People who had to work the first Monday didn’t get out until Saturday and at that point a lot of people already had their buck — it was like hunting in shifts.”

“It’s a mess on the first day; now it’ll be a bigger mess.”

Harold Daub of Tower City, an avid hunter who’s working tirelessly for HUSH (Hunters United for Sunday Hunting), pointed out that the HUSH group is currently focused on expanding Sunday hunting opportunities for small game, not big game. The group is working with legislators and several bills are pending, including one which would increase the trespass penalty and give game wardens the power to cite hunters for trespass violations.

Daub and others are talking to legislators about the loss of potential PA revenue, and they are taking notice. Legislators and PGC officials have also noticed the gradual decline in license sales.

Statistics from the 2014-2015 season show 771,004 male hunters and 81,954 female hunters. In 2015, those numbers were 762,454 and 85,058; overall, a decline of 5,446 in license sales. Why is that happening?

“Whenever surveys are taken asking why Pennsylvanians either stopped hunting, or never hunted, the biggest barrier identified is ‘time’ and it is the most-commonly reported answer to the question,” Daub said. “Therefore, if we could have the PGC review the possibility of hunting some additional species on Sundays, it would clearly eliminate as much of the “time” barrier as would be possible.”

Daub said that license sales and hunter retention and recruitment aren’t just for people.

“We need to remove this barrier of limited time as much as possible to optimize the recruitment, retention, and reactivation of PA hunters — and there are 480 wildlife species in PA that are counting on the conservation programs funded by PA hunters who pursue just 62 game and furbearing species that we are permitted to hunt.”