Game Committee 04

                  Game Committee       04-12-07

Introduced in the PA House

HB 640 Cappelli: Amending Title 23 (Domestic Relations), further providing, in support matters, for cooperation of government and non-government agencies. Removes the requirement of supplying a Social Security Number when applying for a recreational license. (65 co-sponsors)

Referred to Judiciary Committee, 03-06-07

Passed over in committee (not considered), 03-20-07

HB 747 Gergely: Amending Title 34 (Game), providing for a special license and license auction to hunt one elk. 95% of the proceeds shall pay for elk habitat improvement.

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07

HB 770 Markosek: Amending Title 34, further providing for license costs and fees. Sets the fee of a hunting license at $10 for Veterans of the Persian Gulf War or the War on Terror. This is evidently a permanently fixed fee, as no time limit is cited in the bill.

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07

HB 779 Staback: Amending Title 34, repealing provisions relating to Sunday hunting prohibition. The entire of Section 2303, referring to Sunday hunting, is removed from the Game Code.

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07

HB 788 Denlinger: Amending Title 34, authorizing Pennsylvania Game Commission Officers to enforce trespass laws (all trespass laws).

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07

HB 798 Phillips: Establishing a task force on Lyme disease and related maladies; and providing for powers and duties of the task force, the Department of Health, the DCNR and the PGC, for certain antibiotic therapies and for misconduct proceedings. A program of general information and education regarding Lyme disease will be developed, coverage for Lyme disease and related tick-borne illnesses is mandated for health care plans, and misconduct penalties are provided for licensees who fail to follow prescribed treatments and proceedures.

Referred to Committee on Health and Human Services, 03-19-07

HB 817 Denlinger: Amending Title 34, further providing for restrictions on recreational spotlighting. Prohibit the purposeful casting of artificial light from a vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft to search for deer, during rifle deer seasons.

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-03



                                                                                                                Game Committee 04-12-07 (2)

HB 818 Denlinger: Amending Title 34, prohibiting hunting in and around game feeders and game feeding areas. Makes it unlawful to knowingly hunt within 100 yards of such feeders and areas.

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07

HB 819 Denlinger: Amending Title 34, further providing for regulations of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The regulations relating to any season for hunting with flintlock muzzleloader firearms shall also allow hunting with in-line muzzleloader firearms.

Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07
HB 849 Haluska: Amending Title 34, further providing for the use of Game Fund revenues. 
 A minimum of 10% of the previous fiscal year's revenues from timber harvesting on commission
 land shall be used solely for the purpose of forest regeneration activities. A reforestation practice
 entered into as part of a timber harvesting contract by the commission shall be included for purposes 
of calculating revenues from timber harvesting. The moneys collected under this paragraph shall be 
deposited into a separate account and shall be used exclusively for production, distribution and 
planting of trees and spraying and deer fencing on commission land. The account shall operate 
as a revolving fund whereby all appropriations, payments and interest made thereto may be applied
 and reapplied to the purposes of this paragraph.
Referred to Game And Fisheries Committee, 03-19-07
 
HB 863 Hess: Amending Title 34, expanding the hours for turkey hunting; and abrogating inconsistent 
regulations.  Spring turkey hunting shall be allowed from sunrise to 5:00 p.m.
Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-22-07
 
HB 881 Haluska: Amending Title 34, further providing for exceptions to unlawful use of lights while hunting. 
 Allows a person who uses a flashlight or spotlight held in hand or worn on the head to take furbearers.  
Presently, the Game Code only allows a hand held light to take raccoons, skunks, opossum or foxes.  
This would expand to all furbearers, although the penalty for hunting bobcat with a flashlight or spotlight remains intact.
Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-22-07
 
HB 931 Godshall: Amending Title 34, further providing for recreational hunting on commission-owned lands.
  Subject to valid existing rights, commission-owned lands shall be open to access and use for recreational 
hunting except as limited by the commission for reasons of public safety, fish or wildlife management, or homeland
 security or as otherwise limited by law.  The bill contains a no net loss provision.
Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-20-07
 
Introduced in the PA Senate
 
SB 99 Musto: Amends the Wild Resource Conservation Act, by removing the provision that disallows 
the use of General Fund money for the act.
Referred to Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, 03-02-07
 
                                                                                                            Game Committee 04-12-07 (3)
 
SB 149 Tomlinson: Amending the act of June 29, 2006 (P.L.281, No.60), entitled "An act relating to 
confidentiality of Social Security numbers; and making a related repeal," further providing for extending
 privacy provisions to certain confidential individual information; and further providing for applicability.  
The Act passed last year to safeguard Social Security Numbers is expanded to protect “confidential
 individual information”.  This is defined as the Social Security Number, date of birth, driver’s license
 number and financial institution number of an individual.
SB 149 does not prohibit Social Security Numbers for purchase recreational licenses.
Referred to Communications and Technology Committee, 03-07-07
 
SB 497 Robbins:  Amending the act of February 2, 1965, encouraging landowners to make land and water 
areas available to the public for recreational purposes by limiting liability.  
The list of recreational purposes is expanded to include motorized recreational vehicles.  Also provided for is 
reimbursement of legal costs when a landowner is found not liable in a lawsuit.
This bill does not appear to solve the problem of landowners closing their land to hunters as a result of the
 court decision last year.
Referred to Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, 03-29-07
 
SB 580 Madigan: Amending Title 34, permitting use of dogs in hunting for wild turkey. 
 Makes lawful the use of a dog to pursue, chase, scatter, and track wild turkeys during the fall season.
Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-20-07
 
SB 669 Waugh: Amending Title 34, providing for a special license and license auction to hunt one elk. 
 96% of the proceeds shall pay for elk habitat improvements.  Designates the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation 
as the entity to conduct the auction.
Referred to Game and Fisheries Committee, 03-22-07
 
SB 722 Madigan: Establishing a task force on Lyme disease and related maladies; and providing for powers and duties of the task force, the Department of Health, the DCNR and the PGC, for certain antibiotic therapies and for misconduct proceedings.

This is the Senate version of HB 798 and is identical to it.

Referred to Banking and Insurance Committee, 04-02-07

SB 266 Erickson: An Act providing for a report on potential global warming impacts and economic opportunities for this Commonwealth, for duties of the Department of Environmental Protection, for an inventory of greenhouse gases, for creation of stakeholder process, for a voluntary registry of greenhouse gas emissions and for a climate change action plan.

Referred to Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, 03-08-07
 
 
 
                                                                                                               Game Committee 04-12-07 (4)
Conservationists irked by USDA promotion of amber waves of gas at CRP expense:

         The double-barreled blow of high corn prices and the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to suspend general enrollment opportunities for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), does not bode well for wildlife, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

         USDA recently announced that it does not plan to conduct a general sign-up for CRP during Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008, which it estimates will result in withdrawal of at least 4 million acres from the program over the next three years. The agency projects that more than a quarter of the land coming out of CRP is located in the major corn-producing states of the Upper Midwest—a substantial portion of the landscape that has contributed to the resurgence of many grassland-dependent wildlife species during the past two decades. Pheasants, bobwhite quail and several species of waterfowl are heavily dependent on the habitat provided by CRP in the Midwest and a significant reduction in CRP enrollment there will almost certainly result in declining numbers of those game birds, which, through recreational opportunities, generate millions of dollars annually to the region and for the management of all wildlife resources.

         High corn prices, in response to growing demand for ethanol, are at the root of the matter. USDA economists project that demand for ethanol will increase by 50 percent next year, which will drive high corn prices even higher and thereby boost farmer incentive to plant even more of the crop. Since virtually all high-quality farm land is already in crop production, additional ground to address this high demand will almost certainly come from more marginal croplands, a great deal of which has been enrolled in CRP in recent years.

         Beef, pork and poultry producers also have been turning up the heat on Congress and USDA to take action to address the high price of corn, because it has resulted in increased costs of their operations.

         Presumably, in response to calls for an immediate increase in corn production, USDA also announced that it is considering allowing producers to opt out of existing CRP contracts without having to meet otherwise required penalties for early withdrawal. This action promptly drew fire from most of the country’s leading conservation organizations. They claim that the hard-earned language, enrollment and gains of CRP for the landscape, for wildlife and for producers would be undermined by the USDA actions as announced.

         On the other hand, USDA advised that continuous sign-up for buffers, wetlands and other initiatives, as well as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, will continue. The conservation organizations think it doubtful that additional enrollment in these programs will be able to offset much of the habitat lost from general CRP.

         Information relative to the impact of these actions on CRP in specific states can be found at www.fsa.usda.gov.

Source: WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, www.wildlifemanagementinstitute.org
                                                                                                                                     Game Committee 04-12-07 (5) 
 
LB&FC Report: Shotgun verses Rifle
 
In response to HR 61 (2005), the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee contracted a study to 
MountainTop Technologies (Johnstown, Pa) to determine the relative safety of shotguns verses rifles
 for hunting in Pennsylvania, so as to determine whether special regulation areas should be expanded.  
The findings are as follows:
 
-         Decisions to ban rifles are primarily based on the public perception that shotguns are less risky than rifles, 
rather than on scientific data.
-          At normal deer hunting conditions and taking ricochets into account, some widely used shotgun 
ammunition combinations are riskier than centerfire ammunition.
The ammunitions used in the study were those most used among hunters

-         Rifle: .30-06 Springfield using a 150-grain soft point projectile.

-         Shotgun: 12 gauge with a sabot .50 caliber 385-grain projectile.



At firing angles of elevation from 5 to 35 degrees, the lighter rifle projectile travels a longer distance than the heavier shotgun projectile, and therefore poses a greater risk than the shotgun projectile.

At a firing angle of approximately zero degrees, which would simulate a hunter shooting at a deer on ground level, the situation changes due to ricochet.

-         After hitting the ground at shallow angles of impact, the smaller cross sectional area and shape of the rifle bullet contributes to a higher loss of energy on impact, and ricochets tend to tumble in flight, creating a high drag.

-         After shallow angle ricochets, shotgun slugs, with their larger cross sectional area and shape, maintain more of their energy and aerodynamic properties and therefore travel further.

-         At a ground level firing angle, the danger area is about 116% greater for a shotgun than for a rifle.



In all cases, muzzleloaders are found to be less risky than rifles and shotguns.

Report Recommendations

-          The Game Commission should address the public perception that a shotgun with modern high velocity ammunition is less risky than centerfire rifles in all circumstances.

-          Frangible, or reduced ricochet projectiles, for hunting firearms should be investigated as an alternative to the mandatory use of shotguns or muzzleloaders and as a means of managing risk in Special Regulated Areas (While the suitability of these projectiles for hunting deer remains unknown, the nature of these projectiles to break apart on impact would increase safety).