Penn’s Outdoors

I do a lot of public speaking on topics related to my job as a social worker.  I know the importance of each and every word I use to make the point that I am trying to drive home.  Recently in a conversation about PA’s deer management with a friend, he brought up a great point about PGC’s word choices when it comes to deer management.

Have you noticed that PGC uses the measurement term of acreage to describe their land assets?  Every State Game Lands is described by how many acres it contains.

When it comes to current deer populations, PGC and other advocates of their current approach change their words about measurement to square miles.  Here’s a quote from my post about PA’s fuzzy math.

Not surprisingly, the result has been a significant decrease in deer numbers. The population is now estimated as 15 deer per square mile…

Why use square mile here?  The reason  is simple.  If you think you are outraged about current deer populations now.  Try thinking about current populations in terms of acres rather than square miles.  One square mile = 640 acres.  Read the above quote again in the new context.

Not surprisingly, the result has been a significant decrease in deer numbers. The population is now estimated as 15 deer per 640 acres

I feel my blood boiling right now.  PGC and advocates of the current deer management strategy don’t want you to feel this emotion.  So, they soften the blow by using the number that doesn’t sound as bad.  The key to fostering public trust is being transparent even when things you do are unpopular.  Using tricks like this might work in the short-term but are part of PGC’s biggest long-term problem, distrust from hunters.  Hunter trust in the PGC is falling even faster than PA’s deer population.