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I don’t know if 24 is enough, but I’m certain that less than 30 isn’t.
A bill introduced by state Sen. Richard Alloway II, R-Adams/Cumberland/Franklin/York would reduce the amount of time successful deer hunters have to report their harvest from 10 days to 24 hours. The move is an attempt to increase reporting rates, which have fallen alarmingly low.
But is it the answer?
After Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Game Commission board meeting, commissioner Jay Delaney of Wilkes-Barre said the harvest reporting rate in one Wildlife Management Unit was less than 30 percent last year. Statewide, the agency estimates, less than 40 percent of all successful hunters report their harvest. It’s closer to one-third.
Considering the PGC relies on the reports to estimate the deer harvest, something needs to be done to increase the reporting rate for accuracy sake. I just don’t think cutting the amount of time hunters have to report is the answer.
Alloway’s bill would essentially eliminate the mail-in report cards that hunters use now. Reporting would be done by telephone or online. I commend Alloway for taking the initiative to try to correct the problem, but the process of making a phone call or going online within 24 hours of harvesting a deer would be a burden for hunters, especially those in remote camps without phone or Internet access. Give them a few days to do it and I think that would be more palatable, but there would still be complaints.
So what can be done?
Increase the fines for not reporting.
Reporting a deer harvest is easy the way it is. You have 10 days to mail in a simple card, make a phone call or go online and complete the process in a minute. Inconvenience certainly isn’t a reason to not report.
Still, most hunters choose to do just that, and the punishment they face is a mere $25 fine.
Pocket change.
And nearly impossible to enforce.
Agency deputy executive director Rich Palmer said a hunter who failed to report their harvest can simply deny the wrongdoing and tell officials the report card must have gotten lost in the mail. How can it be proven otherwise?
Perhaps a $250 fine would motivate more hunters to report their harvest in the 10-day time frame. Maybe it takes the threat of a license revocation to increase harvest reporting rates.
Or how about this? Do away with the mail-in report cards, allow hunters to report via the phone, Internet or in person at any license issuing agent. But don’t stop there. Require all hunters to report, not just those that are successful. Even those that didn’t have any luck would have to report that as well. Sure, the information might not mean a whole lot when it comes to harvest calculations, but the agency could easily track the reporting process by matching the reports with every license and to determine who failed to send one in.
For example, if the PGC sells 750,000 antlerless licenses, for example, and 650,000 reports are received from both successful and unsuccessful hunters, then the agency knows exactly which 100,000 hunters need a reminder to submit their report or face a fine of $250.
For hunters, it would be easy. Check a box that states you either harvested a buck, doe or nothing at all and you’re done.
Such a process may require more work by the PGC, but if harvest reports are as critical as they claim than the extra effort should be warranted.
If that doesn’t work, I’m not sure what the solution is.
Maybe there isn’t an answer to a long-standing problem that, for hunters, really isn’t that hard of a process to follow.