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RE: Northumberland County’s OHV/ATV Park Plan has
Unacceptable Hunting Proposals
Dear fellow hunters,
I just finished reading the OHV master plan; I
find most of the plan acceptable.
BUT
the proposed hunting seasons and the revised map
looks like a parking lot and field being proposed that would
destroy the best woodcock nesting habitat in the county. The
place I call "Woodcock “and others call "the PENNDOT". I,
the hunters I represent and others I have talked to find
these totally unacceptable!
On July 10th a group of PENNDOT user's are
cleaning the site of illegally dumped trash, in the past HFW
has cleaned this area, we did not and they are not, cleaning
this site for a parking lot to be constructed there.
I could show the County less environmentally
sensitive areas to construct a field and parking lot.
Also in the written plan there is no
differentiation between motorized and non-motorized/buffer
area rules, permits, rates, hunting seasons and the like.
In the plan it states hunting is a "safety
concern" as you can see from the list below hunting is about
the safest outdoor sport there is. Non-hunters have an
irrational fear of guns and hunting. The steering committee
needs to be educated on the safety of hunting. As a
non-safety concern, I really don't see why there
should be any exclusions of hunting at anytime anywhere in
the park. (Other than irrational and political
concerns) The only statement that could be made
is, during hunting season; recommend what the Game
Commission posts on game lands,
"Hunters Were Orange and so Should You".
The following is a list of injuries, compiled by the
National Safety Council, which required hospital
emergency room treatment per 100,000 participants:
• Football 2,171
• Baseball 2,090
• Soccer 910
• Bicycle riding 904
• Skateboarding 869
• Horseback riding 465
• Ice skating 335
• Fishing 141
• Tennis 121
• Golf 94
• Hunting 8 (and
most of these injuries are probably self inflicted from
falls, not guns)*
I think these statistics sum up the safety of sport
hunting.
Thank You,
David F. Kaleta
president, Habitat for Wildlife Inc.
Habitat coordinator, Woodcock Limited of PA
www.habitat4wildlife.org
http://www.wlofpa.org
570-850-3624
Below is from OHV master plan draft.
_________________________________________________________________________
Plan page 3-47 (199 of 332) parts on hunting from
http://www.anthraciteadventure.com/pages/ProposedArea/MasterPlan.aspx
http://www.anthraciteadventure.com/pages/ProposedArea/MasterPlan.aspx
Hunting
Throughout the course of the master planning process,
hunting was a controversial subject.
On one hand, hunting is a well-established activity in
Northumberland County as hunting
has occurred on the County property for many generations. On
the other hand, if hunting
is permitted to occur on the property once the Anthracite
Outdoor Adventure Area is
established, safety concerns
dictate the facility should be closed to all other
activities. ( hunting is
one of the safest outdoor sports there is)*
A closed facility will not generate user fee revenues for the duration
of the closing and it would be an unpopular decision to
charge a user fee for those interested in hunting on the
property. Also, as part of this analysis, an inventory of
existing public hunting opportunities was conducted.
There are twenty-seven state
game lands, totaling approximately 137,600 acres, and
189,700 acres of State Forest, that are open to hunting,
within 30 minutes of the proposed Anthracite Outdoor
Adventure Area. Given the amount of land open to hunting in
proximity to the County land, a strong argument could be
made that providing additional lands for hunting
opportunities may not be warranted as sufficient
opportunities are available in the region.
(These hunting areas don't have the ideal habitats county
land has)*
That said, it would be a very unpopular decision from a
political perspective.
Each perspective was taken into consideration to determine
whether a suitable compromise
could be reached. The ideal compromise would be to limit the
closure of the facility to off-peak
times while permitting the hunting of each game species on
the property.
Typically, the off-peak use season for an OHV facility is
during the late fall and winter months.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission establishes the rules and
regulations related to hunting in
Pennsylvania and the open season for each species is
dependent on the breeding seasons of
the respective species. Of particular interest are the large
game seasons. All of the seasons
were reviewed to determine their overlap during the
anticipated off-peak season of the facility.
Refer to the attached table.Based on this analysis we
recommend providing a six week opportunity for hunting
within the AOAA, by closing the
AOAA Monday through Saturday, beginning with the Saturday
before Thanksgiving through the first week of January.
This encompasses a portion of the fall and winter small game
(rabbit, squirrel, grouse, pheasant, quail, and turkey)
season, bear season, deer (rifle season), a portion of the
deer winter archery season, bobcat season, and a portion of
the raccoon and fox seasons. Further, closing the facility
during this time frame should have the least impact to the
economics of the facility as this is the most likely time of
year(between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day) for limited
use of the facility by the motorized community.
Given Pennsylvania Game
Commission regulations prohibit hunting on Sundays,
(Sunday hunting is coming)*the
AOAA could be open on Sundays only throughout the designated
hunting season at the AOAA. Many hikers, equestrians, and
OHV enthusiasts typically stay out of the woods Monday
through Saturday, and recognize they can enter them on
Sundays without conflicting with hunters. Opening the AOAA
one day a week during the
proposed hunting period would allow on-motorized and
motorized use of the AOAA. All trails would be open
to use, and, there would be limited services as major
facilities such as the campground would not be opened during
this period as it would not be economically feasible. We
recommend the County evaluate this policy on an annual basis
to determine whether the policy should be modified. Further,
we recommend the County track the attendance of hunters on
the County property to determine the number being served.
If it is determined the
facility is being closed for a few hunters, and if it is
anticipated that opening the facility would
serve more visitors, then we recommend the policy hunting
policy be eliminated.
(What the hell)*
__________________________________________________________________________
* my comments, David Kaleta
*This recommendation will eliminate all of woodcock season
on the most prolific woodcock covers I know of. It would
also eliminate almost all of the archery seasons, all of the
spring and most of the fall turkey/gobbler season, all of
the early inline deer season, early youth/ senior deer
season, most of the early and late, small game season, this
area is full of grouse and rabbits.
The plan states there are plenty of other public lands to
hunt nearby, but they don't seem to realize that as a result
of past mining and reclamation we have valuable and rare
aspen stands, early -successional forest and wet lands that
are not on these other public lands. Maintaining and
construction of early -successional forest is one of the
prime goals of the USDA's and the PA Game Commission's long
term conservation plans due to their importance to the
environment. Destroying prime habitat makes no sense when
there are alternatives.
Contact Northumberland County and let them know your opinion
about taking hunting away from us.
http://www.anthraciteadventure.com/pages/ContactUs.aspx
399 S. 5th Street
Sunbury, Pa 17801
Telephone: 570-988-4220
Fax: 570-988-4436
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