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Senate Game and Fisheries Committee 12:00 p.m., Room 8E-A East Wing 3/10/09 By Matt Hess, PLS The committee heard from Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) Executive Director Carl Roe, who delivered the Commission's annual report. Members in attendance included Chairman Richard Alloway II (R-Franklin), Minority Chairman Richard Kasunic (D-Fayette), Senator Charles McIlhinney (R-Bucks), Senator John Eichelberger (R-Blair), Senator John Pippy (R-Allegheny), and Senator Robert Robbins (R-Mercer). Roe, stated that the annual report "updates the legislated report requirements of public accountability, program accountability, financial accountability, and law enforcement accountability." Roe said the Game Commission "continues to conduct many programs, but is restricted by resources available to do what needs to be done." He said the Commission is responsible for managing 467 species of birds and mammals including 22 that are threatened or endangered. He stressed, "An important key to all species conservation is habitat, in particular the protection and management of habitat." Roe spoke about the wind energy program, stating 20 out 24 wind energy developers in Pennsylvania have signed the PGC Wind Energy Voluntary Cooperative Agreement. He explained the agreements have greatly improved the Commission's awareness of project proposals within Pennsylvania, allowing preliminary wildlife resource information to be taken into account before project development. The agreement between the PGC and cooperators requires a minimum of one year of preconstruction surveys and two years of post-construction monitoring at wind sites. He described the discovery of the second largest Indiana bat maternity colony and the discovery of a female lactating silver-haired bat and maternity colony as main achievements of the program. Roe said the Seedlings for Schools Program has been very successful. The program provides seedlings from Howard Nursery to schools for development of habitat on school grounds and at students' homes and it is integrated into the teachers' environmental curriculum. Over 55,000 seedlings were given to 300 schools. Roe stated the Point of Sale System is in place and will be fully automated for the new license year on June 15, 2009. The commission ran a pilot in September and with some minor glitches that were corrected, it moved forward with final system development. The commission is currently deploying the rest of the agents and looks forward to being fully operational for this license year. Roe spoke about the Turn-In a Poacher (TIP) program. The commission automated the program on its website to allow individuals to provide information on illegal taking of wildlife, both game and non-game. Last year, the commission had 451 TIPs and over 50% were on the new electronic forum. Roe stated, "We had a pretty good hunting season last year. There were mixed results for species, but overall there was considerable success. Harvests were up for fall turkey, rabbits, pheasants, quail, doves and geese. Harvests were slightly down for squirrel, woodcock, bear and ducks. Spring turkey and ruffed grouse were about the same." Roe said the buck harvest was down in 2007-2008 due primarily to bad weather the first day of the 2007 firearms deer season. The rain and miserable weather across the state resulted in 50 percent lower buck harvest the first day. Roe stated "we are not using a one-size fits all approach to managing deer in the WMUs." He said the commission continues to decrease the herd in three WMUs, increasing the herd in three WMUs and stabilizing the herd in the other 16 WMUs. There are four WMUs that have a five day buck only season followed by a seven day concurrent season. The commission is continuing with antler restrictions and has received many positive comments. He said the results are evident as PGC is seeing an older class of bucks in the population. He stated "Citizen Advisory Committees (CACs) continue to play an important role in deer management decision making. We have completed CACs in ten WMUs with five more scheduled for this winter. By March we will have completed CACs for nearly 70 percent of the WMUs." Roe then spoke about the commission's fiscal situation. "At end of June 2008 we had a Game Fund balance of $35,590,000 on a cost accounting basis. This was an increase in the anticipated balance of $32 million." He said part of the increases is due to minor increases in revenue, but the greatest impact was a conservative approach to spending that allowed almost $8 million to lapse forward into this fiscal year in anticipation of lower revenues this year due to the collapse of the timber industry. The commission anticipates this year's balance to be below $34 million. He explained that the balance "may seem like a lot but does not cover anticipated expenses over the next few years. We need approximately $23 million in the Game Fund to cover expenses for the first three months of the fiscal year. That leaves a difference of $11 million. The commission's increase in personnel costs for the next two years is almost $6 million." Roe stated "We face many challenges with increased costs and fewer personnel to get the job done. We are not limited by the will to serve our hunters, trappers and other conservationists. We are only limited by resources that we have available. I do not know of any business or any other state agency that is still functional today that is operating on a 1999 revenue stream." Roe said that a little over half of the commission's revenue comes from hunting licenses. "Half our revenue has lost more than 30 percent buying power over the last ten years due to inflationary effect." Revenues this year are even more difficult, he explained. Although there is a modest increase in gas revenues, timber revenue from habitat improvement cuts is down by almost 50 percent. Another decrease in revenues is the investment account. PGC generally predicts about $2 million in interest on its accounts that are managed by the State Treasury. This year, as of the end of December, that account lost almost $1,021,175. "That basically is a $3 million negative swing in the Game Fund," Roe stated. He noted that the commission has had a hiring freeze for over four years except for critical positions and already has 81 vacancies. Roe said spending has been reduced considerably and any additional cuts in personnel and spending will severely damage the Commission's wildlife efforts. He highlighted some of the audits that the commission is facing Annual audit by the Auditor General on license revenue and sales Triennial Audit on the Strategic Plan by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee Audit on timber and oil, gas minerals program by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee Civil Rights audit by the US Fish and Wildlife Agency An audit of Pittman Robertson Funds by the US Fish and Wildlife Agency. Roe stated "This will all occur within one year. This does not include the pending deer audit that we are looking forward to. As you can see, we are probably the most audited agency in state government." Roe laid out the following the legislative priorities for the upcoming session: License fee increase Increase penalty bill for multiple big game offenses Transfer an antlerless license to a mentored youth Address the Retirement Program for the Wildlife Conservation Officers Roe spoke about the mentored youth program. He stated "To help monitor the program we are going to initiate a mentored youth permit available in our POS system. There will be a $1 fee plus vendor fees for the permit that will print out the permit and the big game tags for the mentored youth. This will also provide us a database of future hunters so we can better plan for Hunter Trapper Education classes to meet the needs of a specific area." Roe stated in closing, "The issue boils down to a matter of having the necessary resources to empower our dedicated workforce to put plans into action." Senator Pippy asked if the Commission would be willing to expand the disabled hunter program. Roe responded "absolutely." He noted that there are a number of hunting opportunities for disabled hunters and the Commission is taking steps to accommodate them on larger game lands. Senator Eichelberger inquired about the four wind energy developers that have not signed onto the PGC Wind Energy Voluntary Cooperative Agreement and asked if wind mills are permitted on state game lands. Roe said the largest developer is Florida Power and Light Company and indicated that the Commission is working with all of them to reach an agreement. He said wind mills are permitted on game lands but "there are quite a few hoops to jump through." Senator Eichelberger said that he may be proposing legislation that would allow the Commission to set its own fee rates as opposed to going through the Legislature. Roe stated that the Commission has a responsible board of commissioners who "listen to hunters" and indicated that a number of states have allowed boards to set the rates. Senator Robbins asked what the point is of conducting a study two years after wind mills are established because the Commission does not have the power to remove them. Roe said that the Commission can make recommendations to the energy provider which can reduce the negative impact on the habitat. Minority Chairman Kasunic asked if the Commission has a position on Sunday hunting. Roe said it is a "tough call' because polling results indicate hunters are split 50/50 on the issue. He stated "I don't want to speak for the Board." Minority Chairman Kasunic questioned how the Marcellus Shale negotiations are going. Roe said the Game Commission tries to get royalty rights and explained that there is more money in the backend. He noted that the Commission has received 25-27% royalty rights on some of the wells. Roe said natural gas is a market driven industry and indicated that last year natural gas prospectors were trading at $14.07 and this year it is $4.03 and noted that there was only one bidder the last time the Commission leased a parcel of land. Roe said the process to determine mineral rights is "long and tedious" particularly due to parcel plots and explained that the commission is in the process of digitizing maps and putting it into a GIS database. Minority Chairman Kasunic said that he supports returning pheasants to the wild much like Pennsylvania did when the state eliminated turkey farms. Roe said each year about 200,000 pheasants are hatched and reared at Commission game farms, and released during fall and winter for hunting. He said that the biggest challenge is to secure idle grass cover to "maximize pheasant reproduction and brood survival." He noted that in the past, the Commission thought it could maintain viable pheasant populations on small tracts, such as individual farms but recent studies suggest that the Commission must manage on a much larger landscape scale, in areas of perhaps 20,000 or more acres. Minority Chairman Kasunic suggested that the Commission examine areas in Southwestern Pennsylvania where coal mining stripped large portions of land and asked how much the Pheasant Propagation Program costs. Roe said that it costs around $2.3 million to operate annually. Minority Chairman Kasunic stated Wildlife Management Zone 2A is too large and suggested breaking it up into four sub-zones. Roe reiterated that the Commission does not take a "one size fits all approach to WMUs" and said the units have to be large in order to provide a sufficient amount of data. Minority Chairman Kasunic expressed concern about Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) which was found in white tailed deer. Roe said that there were isolated cases in Southwestern Pennsylvania and called it an "interesting phenomenon." He indicated that the commission examined the incident and believes it is under control. Chairman Alloway stated that the Commission is "doing an excellent job." He said that the Mentored Youth Program is critical to the continuation of hunting in Pennsylvania and encouraged the Commission to get mothers involved in hunting.