Apr 3, 2020 By Walt Young 3 min read

Although I was hoping not to have to mention the COVID-19 virus again this week, the statewide response to that health crisis ramped up dramatically statewide last week with unprecedented cancellations and business closures, many of them directly affecting us in the outdoors community.

And all indications seem to point toward many of those stoppages and sanctions lasting at least for several weeks, possibly longer.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission announced last week the Mentored Youth Trout Day will occur on April 11 and the opening day of trout season will be April 18 statewide for 2020.

For the past several seasons, 18 counties have had a regional opening day of trout season and mentored youth day two weeks earlier than the rest of the state. This year, the regional Mentored Youth Trout Day was scheduled for March 28 and the regional trout opener was scheduled for April 4.

The remainder of the 2020 trout stocking schedule will be accelerated, and no volunteers will be permitted to help with those stocking efforts. The county-by-county stocking lists have been removed from the PFBC website.

According to PFBC sources, “stockings will be prioritized to deliver trout to regions of the Commonwealth that are predicted to be affected most severely by COVID-19 that could result in restrictions on travel.” In many areas of the state, volunteers provided valuable manpower and assistance to help carry the countless buckets of trout to the streams. To execute its new stocking program without the traditional volunteer manpower, the PFBC has said it “will modify stocking methods for this year.”

Many PFBC employees will be transferred from their regular duties to help with trout stocking. Some streams will receive both their preseason and in-season allocations of trout in one large stocking.

On March 16, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced it would be closing its Harrisburg headquarters and all regional offices around the to the public for at least two weeks. All free in-person Hunter-Trapper Education classes that had been scheduled between March 16 and March 31 were also postponed.

For first-time hunters 11 and older who need to complete a class in order to obtain their hunting licenses for the upcoming spring turkey season, they will be able to take the online Hunter-Trapper Education course without charge. Since 2016, online hunter-trapper education classes have been available in Pennsylvania to students 16 and older for a nominal fee. The waiver of the fee and lower age limit will remain in effect until at least March 31 and possibly longer until in-person hunter-trapper education courses can be offered again.

Walt Young is an outdoors writer for the Altoona Mirror.