Game commission trying to help hunters find deer
With the Nov. 30 opening day of the firearms deer season approaching, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) launched an effort to steer hunters to areas in state game lands where changes made to habitat tend to attract deer.
Deer Hunter Focus Areas have undergone timber cutting or other changes in habitat that spur the growth of plants and vegetation that deer like to eat.
The PGC wants hunters to harvest deer from those area to prevent the deer from over browsing so those areas can regenerate and continue providing good hunting opportunities.
Locally, Deer Hunter Focus Areas are in State Game Lands 51 in Dunbar Township in Fayette County and State Game Lands 223 in Greene and Dunkard townships in Greene County.
“In those areas, from a habitat management perspective, we can probably improve deer habitat by reducing the deer density,” said Steve Leiendecker, PGC land management supervisor for Fayette and Greene counties.
The focus area in Game Lands 51 is near the gated end of a dirt road that extends from Kingan Hill Road. It hasn’t been timbered, but trees along the boundary of the area have been marked with spray paint and the area will be timbered in the near future, Leiendecker said. There are food plots in the area.
Located on a remote hill that slopes down to the Youghiogheny River, the area provides a place for deer to hide from hunting pressure.
“They hide there. Those deer tend to get a little more age to them,” Leiendecker said.
The focus area is in PGC wildlife conservation office (WCO) Andrew Harvey’s district in northeastern Fayette County and he said it is among the places he recommends when people ask him about good places to hunt.
He said he gets asked about good hunting places by hunters he encounters and people not from or familiar with the area, and he is glad to offer suggestions.
In Game Lands 223, the focus area, located near the gated end of Smith Creek Road, was timbered a year ago and is regenerating, he said.
They are good places to hunt, but Leiendecker said hunters shouldn’t go there assuming they’ll come home with a deer.
“Both are good areas to hunt. Those are areas where I would personally hunt,” Leiendecker said. “They’re not necessarily abundant with deer. I don’t want people to assume they’ll get a deer.”
Timber cutting has been done in many places on game lands and in Forbes State Forest.
Cutting mature trees to promote new growth of oak and other mast producing trees is beneficial to wildlife and hunting deer in those cuts helps those trees grow, Leiendecker said.
“I think the goal is to improve regeneration by reducing deer density and letting beneficial plants grow. Red maple grows faster than oak. With deer browsing, it’s hard for oaks to regrow. A regenerating timber sale is the place to look for wildlife,” Leiendecker said.
Regenerating timber cuts can be difficult to hunt because they can be dense with young trees and plants, but deer, bear, grouse and other wildlife are attracted to those areas, he said.
“Some of the best places to hunt deer on state game lands are in remote, often mountainous, areas where forest-management practices have opened the canopy to promote increased plant growth,” said Dave Gustafson, PGC chief forester. “Our goal is to guide hunters within a half-mile – or less – of game lands locations where deer are taking advantage of these habitat improvements.”
Green and yellow colored placards reading “Deer Hunter Focus Area” will be posted to help direct hunters to the locations.
The PGC home page has a link to maps of the 34 game lands across the state that have focus areas.
“Those maps steer hunters looking for game land areas to where we have active forest management in place. They’re areas we want to encourage people to hunt, where it’s important to keep deer numbers managed. They’re areas in which we need that forest regeneration to continue to grow,” said Matt Hough, PGC executive director.
Reports from the field indicate that deer are plentiful throughout the region.
“It looks to be a pretty promising deer season. I’ve seen more deer than I have in the past couple years and lot of trophy class bucks out there as well,” said Shawn Barron, the PGC wilflife conservation officer (WCO) for southern Fayette and Somerset counties.
He said he has been seeing the deer throughout his territory during evening hours since early fall.
During the recently ended archery season, Barron said he encountered a lot of hunters who harvested deer and saw photos of some nice bucks that were harvested. He said received no complaints about the number of deer in the woods.
“I’m still seeing deer around and I know there are a lot of quality bucks out there,” Harvey said.
Among them were two “really nice” bucks he saw chasing does in game lands 51 recently. He also said he has seen photos bow hunters have taken of some nice bucks they harvested.
He said the rain that hampered last year’s firearm season has hunters itching to get back in the woods.
The high number of deer that survived last season because of the rain and the PGC’s reduction of the doe license allocations over the last couple years has allowed the deer population to grow, said Buddy Marra, of Marra’s Mountaneer Sporting Goods, in North Union Township.
“It seems like quite a few deer this year,” Marra said.
He said he saw a lot of deer during the archery season and has seen many photos of nice buck that bow hunters killed in the mountains and lowlands of Fayette County.
“I saw 17-18 different bucks from my tree stand. I hunt a lot I’m in my tree stand every morning,” Marra said.
He said he spends 50 days a year in tree stands hunting in Pennsylvania, as well as in West Virginia where he said he harvest a nice 10-point buck.
“It should be one the best years in the last 10 years,” Marra said.
He said hunting license sales have been brisk this year.
Firearms hunters are allowed to harvest antlered deer only during the first week of the season in wildlife management unit 2C, which encompasses the eastern half of Fayette County, and unit 2A, which includes the western half of Fayette County and Greene County.
Buck and does can be harvested during the second week of the season. A doe license is needed to kill a doe.
Antler restrictions limit hunters to harvesting bucks with at least three points to an antler, including the brow tine, in 2C and three points not counting the brow tine in 2A.