Penn’s Outdoors

The nice thing about blogging about PA hunting right now is that there isn’t any shortage of material.  Pennsylvania is doing an independent audit of the deer management program.  An article at PennLive.com states:

This issue goes well beyond a hunter’s odds of killing a deer. It affects tourism, hunting’s economic benefits, forest regeneration, other species, the timber and forest products industries, farmers, naturalists, recreationists and suburban residents facing encroachment by deer.

Amen! Amen! Amen!  This isn’t just about hunters versus non-hunters, hunters versus the timber industry, or hunters versus the Game Commission.  This is about a whole facet of issues that PA needs help balancing. 

A letter signed by opposing groups and forwarded to all state legislators has prompted the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to look into an audit. Its discussions should center on not whether to proceed, but how to best go about it.

The audit is to be done by people outside the Commonwealth.  It will be interesting to see who is picked to do it but I am hopeful that Pennsylvania can find a way to balance the needs of all interested parties involved.  This is no easy task and complete balance is impossible.  But right now, the balance is out of whack and PA sportsmen are losing out.  The decisions we make today will affect Pennsylvania hunting for years to come.