Game Commission to release 1 million pheasants
HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Game Commission has slated 101,800 ring-necked pheasants for release on public lands throughout the Commonwealth for the upcoming small game hunting seasons. “Based on the agency’s budget cuts first implemented in the 2004-05 fiscal year and carried forward since, we reduced our pheasant propagation program by 50 percent,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “Reducing the pheasant propagation program has saved the agency nearly $1.1 million over the three fiscal years. Without a hunting license fee increase, we expect to continue producing at the 100,000-bird level.
“Despite the overall reductions, this year our game farm staff had an excellent production season. They have worked hard with limited resources to achieve the goal to have 100,000 birds available for stocking this fall, as well as providing an additional 1,800 birds to offer to sportsmen’s clubs who signed up to sponsor mentored youth pheasant hunts on Oct. 7.”
Carl F. Riegner, chief of the agency’s Propagation Division, reminds us that early this spring Roe reinstated an allocation of birds to be offered to sportsmen clubs and other organizations to conduct mentored youth hunts. These birds would normally come from the county allotment in which the hunt is conducted. However, since we had such a great production season the agency has been able to provide the 1,800 birds as extra without reducing the county allotment for the regular season releases. The region staff will begin the stocking season Oct. 5, when the agency will release 15,000 birds (7,420 males and 7,580 females) for the youth pheasant hunt scheduled for Oct. 7-13. A listing of stocking locations for the youth hunt can be found on pages 26-28 of the “2006-07 Pennsylvania Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations,” which is provided to each license buyer.
Opening day of the general pheasant hunting season is Oct. 21, and closes on Nov. 25. Preseason releases will consist of 50 percent of the fall allocation, and will be stocked in each region beginning Oct. 18 followed by the first in-season stocking consisting of 25 percent. The second in-season stocking will be held the week of Nov. 6 consisting of another 25 percent. Only male pheasants are legal game in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 2A, 2B, 2C, 4C, 4E, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D. Male and female pheasants are legal game in all other WMUs.
During the regular fall season, the agency focuses pheasant stocking on State Game Lands and select state parks and federal lands. However, in some areas where habitat conditions on public lands are marginal, birds may be stocked on properties signed in the Game Commission public access program. Game Commission regional offices have an updated publication titled “A Guide To Pheasant Releases And More,” which identifies State Game Lands, and those state parks and federal lands with suitable habitat that receive pheasant stockings. The publication, posted on the Game Commission’s website ( http://www.pgc.state.pa.us), can be viewed by selecting on “Hunting” in the left-hand column, clicking on the photograph of the pheasant and then choosing “Pheasant Management Program.”
The Southwest Region will receive 17,430 males and 5,550 females.
To offer hunters better information about the stocking schedule, the Game Commission has posted on its website charts for each of its six regions outlining the number of birds to be stocked in each county, the public properties slated to be stocked and a two- to three-day window in which stockings will take place within the counties. To view the charts, go to the Game Commission’s website ( http://www.pgc.state.pa.us), select “Hunting” in the left-hand column, clicking on the photograph of the pheasant and then choose “Pheasant Allocation” and click on the map for the county or region of interest.
Each year, when Game Commission personnel are releasing pheasants from the stocking trucks, employees and trucks are shot at by unsuspecting hunters in the field. To prevent this, the agency approved a regulation that prohibits hunters from discharging a firearm within 150 yards of a Game Commission vehicle releasing pheasants.