Public hearing in February set to discuss the Saturday open to deer season

Hunters across Southwestern Pennsylvania will have a chance this month to let state officials know how they feel about having rifle deer season open on a Saturday.

The House Game and Fisheries Committee announced a public hearing is planned Feb. 20 in Speers, Washington County. The meeting will be from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Mon Valley Career and Technical Center, 5 Guttman Ave.

“This is an issue that affects our hunters, and I believe this public hearing will give us an opportunity to hear the pros and cons from both sides of the issue,” said state Rep. Bud Cook, a Washington County Republican and a committee member.

Last year’s Nov. 30 opener to deer season marked the first time since 1963 that rifle season for hunters in Pennsylvania started on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, or two days earlier than the traditional Monday kickoff that had for more than five decades been the norm.

Many hunting license holders voiced objections to the Saturday start, citing the loss of hunting camp traditions.

The game commission recently gave preliminary approval for rifle deer season to start on a Saturday, Nov. 28. The 2020-21 hunting/trapping seasons will be finalized during the game commission’s next meeting April 4.

Also given preliminary approval was adding three Sunday dates to this year’s hunting schedule, including Nov. 29 — the first Sunday of rifle deer season. If approved, hunting would be permitted for eight consecutive days. Sunday hunting would also be allowed on Nov. 15 for archery deer hunting and Nov. 22 during the bear firearms season.

During its Jan. 25 meeting, the game commission also received figures showing a statewide increase in hunting license sales last year. Sales through December increased by 0.4% in 2019 to 849,575, or an increase of 3,351 licenses, said Coren Jagnow, the commission’s human dimensions scientist.

While the change may seem small, Jagnow said it is important to consider license sales have been trending downward for more than three decades. In the previous license year, she reported sales declined by 3.4% — or a loss of more than 30,000 hunters.

And since the peak year for license sales in 1982, license sales increased just 13 times in 36 years.

Jagnow believes there’s a strong correlation between the 2019 Saturday opener and increased license sales, providing reason for optimism that further increases could be achieved in coming years.

“It certainly seems a step in the right direction to reverse the long-term trend of hunter loss,” she said in her report.

Young-adult hunters were among those behind the bigger increases. License sales to hunters ages 18 to 34 increased 0.56% overall. In the seven days leading up to the opening day, resident hunters 18 to 34 bought 20,242 licenses – a more than 7% increase compared to the previous year, the commission reported.

The public hearing is listed on the committee’s calendar as the only meeting concerning the Saturday deer hunting opening scheduled to date through March.

Cook said the committee will receive testimony from various organizations.

More information is available by contracting Cook’s district office in Belle Vernon at 724-929-2660.