Just got home from a long day in St. Mary's.... WOW ... 50 mile round trip...there goes this week's gas money

The open house was a success and from what some of the PGC staff said we had a better turn out here than many of them have had.... THAT'S GREAT...one of them said there were NINE at a recent one

I counted at least 50 folks coming and leaving and there may have been some I missed while talking...

I MAY write up a report on it but that's hard to do since most of the day was asking and listening to questions from hunters and PGC staff.

It was an open house..

no real set agenda... about 5 tables with info and programs to watch and listen to on a computer screen and general groups of folks talking Pa deer hunting -- then -- now --- and for tommorrow

There were about 9 guys from the PGC there... Local WCO (RSB), local land manager, local bilogist, local forester.. also.. biologist, foresters, land and others from the Harrisburg staff.

Quite an informative day.... I must say once again the staff (local and Harrisburg) were VERY VERY professional and all of them DID listen to hunters comments.  

I met some interesting and well educated professionals today and also some interesting hunters...

we will be getting some new visitors and I hope they will stay and become a member and particapte in our discussions... and ALL those PGC folks have made themselves available to me for questions from members here...

and... If I may.... I was suprised that some of those I had never met from Harrisburg were aware of who Dr Trout was.... and voiced their appreciation for the job I am doing in trying to present the PGC Deer Management Program from an average hunter's perspective...

I'll list some of the topics I was in involved in either personally or standing nearby listening to "both sides"

...NO DEER LEFT
...Not and accurate harvest figure
...Habitat.. this was really interesting and I'll add more as the week goes on
... Hunter Surveys
...Check Stations
...PGC Website
...WMU too big
... The old "don't shoot doe" subject
...Basic deer biology.. I was amazed at how little some of those present knew about basic deer biology
... I got quite a bit of info on just how the PGC does the harvest calculatons
.. Deer goals for Pa
... The importance of fawn recruitment
...Balancing the herd with the habitat..

I could go on and on but I think I'll try it this way....

What questions do you have..

I'm sure I heard someone ask that very same question today....

Must say I enjoyed conversing with MFarcher and of course RSB both from the message boards...

And I would like to say once again in finishing this post for now...

Thanks to all the PGC personel for bringing this imformative meeting to our area of the state.. it was appreciated by all those I talked to today..

THANK YOU...

TIL LATER..
Doc  

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2008-03-29 20:58:20 --

Did ya know that the PGC randomly sends out 20,000 surveys each year for hunters to fill out? One question is did you harvest a deer in Pa this past year?

Here's what I found interesting... even after saying yes and the PGC checking the license number with the report cards they find about the same rate of reporting - less than 50% ??


INTERESTING...

Something else interesting.... I was AMAZED at the number of guys who are REALLY REALLY looking forward to the deer seasons this fall..

With such a poor archery season based on  HOT weather and the RAINS in our area day one and two of rifle.. and the harvest figures.. they realize there were ALOT of deer left...many commented on the number of deer they have been seeing in the past few weeks now that the weather has broken somewhat around here.. and they can not believe they are in the basic same area they hunted and had no success....  

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2008-03-29 22:10:40 --