Although our human-dimensions research is still ongoing, we believe that providing Sunday hunting is at least partially to be credited for the increase in license buyers in 2020. Nov 22, 2022. Proudly founded in 1681 as a place of tolerance and freedom. Its followed by Potter with 179, Pike at 167, Tioga with 165, Clinton had 155 andBradford at 135. Also, as part of our 2020 Vision for the Future, the Shohola Falls Wildlife Management Area in Pike County received treatments for an aquatic invasive plant that rapidly overtook this large water body that supports a variety of waterfowl species. PA Game Commission Wildlife Management Units Map (1 rating, 354,502 views) Since 1992, seven black bears weighing at least 800 pounds have been lawfully harvested in Pennsylvania hunting seasons. Join us in celebrating Pennsylvania's bountiful black bears. By: KDKA-TV News Staff. Join F&S+ to read exclusive stories by your favorite writers. Again, congratulations on taking an outstanding trophy from Penn's Woods and for being an important part of our hunting heritage. More people wanted to hunt and trap, visit state game lands, and purchase our products. A bill that has the support of the Game Commission and our license buyers is House Bill 207 by Representative Mullery, which would allow us to leverage the advantages of our new licensing system to provide a much-more-efficient process for hunters to apply for antlerless licenses. Hunters took 1,315 bears in that four-day hunt. If you do not recall your legal seal number, the second set of tables list the ages by region based on the county of harvest and data are then sorted by date, weight, sex, and legal seal. Fortunately for the 2021 season, "with. Hunters harvested an estimated 376,810 white-tailed deer. Learn moreabout Pennsylvania black bears at Pennsylvania Game Commission's website. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Enjoy! Watch as the three bear cubs wrestle at about 3 months old. The. In the past, when there was only a rifle bear season, the check stations received more bear over a shorter window. A total of 215,219 people bought a bear license in 2021; that was not far off 2020s record sales of 220,471. The map will constantly update with hunters checking in their bears. Black Bear Weight Chart(PDF)Bear, Deer & Turkey HarvestsHarvest MapsPennsylvania Black Bear Harvest Certificate (PDF)Wildlife Management UnitsHighly Regulated Community ActivityWPSU video (3:22). For ages of bears with legal seals #2105020 2109264 To access the data and learn the age of their bear, a hunter will need to have their legal seal number from the check station certificate. Pa. Game Commission gives bear hunters opportunities as bear population booms, Hunters take record number of black bears in Pennsylvania in 2019, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Lycoming County has the most bears harvested this fall with 212. The largest bear as of Tuesday afternoonhad an estimated live weight of 722 pounds and was taken in Franklin County at the Letterkenny Army Depot. The map will constantly update with hunters checking in their bears. Crossbows may not have a draw weight less than 125 pounds. Watch what happens when the PA bear family of 4 ventures outside of the den for a fieldtrip, with exclusive footage from outside of the den! Carrollo always enjoys hearing the hunters talking about their trophies, especially when getting one for the first time. If your issue is not resolved by clearing your browser cache, please follow our comprehensive troubleshooting tips for errors and buffering or other stream issues. To order the 2021 Pennsylvania Big Game Records book, visit the Game Commission's website www.pgc.pa.gov or call 1-888-888-3459. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and to deliver the Game Commissions 2020 annual report. We agree with this assessment, and share the concerns raised in the audit report. In comparison, the four-day black bear rifle season netted 1,314. Muzzleloader hunters can take a bear from Oct. 15 to 22, while juniors, seniors and some other special categories of hunters including mentored hunters ages 16 and under, active-duty military and certain disabled persons permit holders can harvest a bear with a firearm from Oct. 20 to 22. I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Southeast 156 (169): Schuylkill, 61 (78); Dauphin, 54 (37); Northampton, 13 (23); Berks, 12 (15); Lebanon, 8 (9); Lehigh, 6 (7); and Bucks, 2 (0). The next nine heaviest bears reported all topping 600 pounds came, in order, from Luzerne County, Armstrong County, Snyder County, Clearfield County, Lycoming County, Carbon County, Pike County, Clearfield County and Clinton County. The legislative proposals I mentioned are an extension of those earlier efforts and will allow us to complete the process of modernizing the agency, putting us on a solid footing to meet the challenges ahead. Junior and Senior license holders, those with disabled person permits, and Pennsylvania residents serving on active duty in the armed forces, may hunt bears or antlerless deer with a rifle during the special firearms season from Oct. 20-22. Since 1992, seven black bears weighing at least 800 pounds have been lawfully harvested in Pennsylvania hunting seasons. The listing for the largest 10 bears showed they ranged from 599, also in Franklin County, up to the 722-pounder. I am pleased to report that the two elk Special Conservation licenses, one auctioned off by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), and the other through raffle sales by the Keystone Elk Country Alliance (KECA), generated a record setting $150,000 and $215,375 respectively. Where to find bears:Black bear opportunities abound in Pennsylvania. If the hunter no longer has the seal number, age data also is provided in charts broken down by county of harvest.In 2009, of the nearly 148,000 licensed bear hunters, 3,512 bears were harvested and taken to check stations, which is the second highest harvest recorded in Pennsylvania. We know the recipe to make more bears, Carrollo said about having the ability to change the hunting seasons based on the robust data they are collecting on bears through check station requirements. The largest bear in the state was taken in southcentral Pennsylvania. Scientific Name: But added together, those seasons provide a lot of opportunity. The last time the Game and Wildlife Code was updated was in 1987. Under our current two-farm business model, we are stocking the same number of pheasants as we did under the previous four-farm model, but at a per-bird cost of less than $14 compared to about $21 previously. Pennsylvania's Board of Game Commissioners today approved two land acquisitions and a real-estate exchange that together would add about 19 acres to the state game lands system. Following yet another top 10 harvest during the 2021 hunting season, black bear population numbers in Pennsylvania showed a decline for the second year in a row. Leveraging GIS resources, most importantly the grouse siting tool, referred to as G-PAST (Grouse Priority Area Siting Tool), created over the last few years, has allowed us to focus habitat treatment areas so that we can have the biggest opportunity for a multitude of species including our state bird the ruffed grouse. Hunters who take a bear during any archery season or the October muzzleloader and special firearms seasons should call the Game Commissions centralized dispatch center at either of two new numbers, 1-833-PGC-HUNT (1-833-742-4868) or 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453), to make arrangements to have the bear checked. Proudly founded in 1681 as a place of tolerance and freedom. The running tally of bears killed by Pennsylvania hunters in 2021, maintained through the Pennsylvania Game Commission's online link to its bear check stations across the state, passed. It is worth noting that a recent report from the National Deer Association credited Pennsylvania as one of only three states in the entire U.S. to harvest more than 300,000 deer annually. The final bear harvests by Wildlife Management Unit (with final 2020 figures in parentheses) were: WMU 1A, 26 (22); WMU 1B, 96 (121); WMU 2A, 5 (9); WMU 2B, 10 (6); WMU 2C, 192 (176); WMU 2D, 206 (191); WMU 2E, 45 (75); WMU 2F, 245 (277); WMU 2G, 519 (628); WMU 2H, 90 (141); WMU 3A, 238 (199); WMU 3B, 403 (273); WMU 3C, 218 (170); WMU 3D, 426 (409); WMU 4A, 173 (177); WMU 4B, 121 (113); WMU 4C, 224 (228); WMU 4D, 300 (236); WMU 4E, 97 (135); WMU 5A, 14 (13); WMU 5B, 1 (0); and WMU 5C, 10 (22). . That was down slightly from 220,471 in 2020, but still the second-highest number of bear licenses ever sold in any one year. Pennsylvania hunters recorded their all-time best bear season in 2019, when they harvested 4,653. On average, each full-time warden was responsible for covering more than 400 square miles. In 1983, hunters first harvested more than 1,529 bears in Pennsylvania. This footage was days before the sow decided to take the bear family outside the den and into the woods. Pennsylvania has a long history of supporting a lot of black bears, many of truly impressive size, across most of the state, Carrollo said. Combined, these areas converted almost 1,500 acres into highly functional and sustainable habitats for small-game species such as cottontail rabbits, woodcock, and ring-necked pheasants as well as a multitude of non-game species. The current mail-in approach is completely outdated, unpopular, and provides no benefit to our customers. Hunters have encountered some large bruins. The four-day rifle season for bear began Saturday, Nov, 19, and continued Monday through. According to a release Pennsylvanians took 3,659 bears across last year's various seasons. 2021 PA Bear Den returns in February at the same location in Monroe County with a new sow and three cubs. 1,314 bears have been taken in firearms season so far, with 1,197 taken during . pa black bear den This live video feed is the result of a partnership between Pennsylvania Game Commission and HDOnTap for educational purposes,. We're sorry to hear that you are experiencing an issue! Among the strategies identified in the plan are increasing hunting opportunities, providing accurate and timely information on CWD testing results, and conducting educational and outreach campaigns to communicate key messages to stakeholders. Northeast 1,121 (988): Pike, 167 (105); Bradford, 136 (108); Sullivan, 127 (71); Wayne, 120 (100); Luzerne, 111 (125); Carbon, 103 (97); Monroe, 95 (152); Susquehanna, 77 (54); Wyoming, 66 (42); Lackawanna, 62 (56); Columbia, 36 (53); Northumberland, 16 (22); and Montour, 5 (3). *** Total includes NonResident Antlerless and Nonresident Special Regs. With regard to increasing opportunities on state game lands, our 32 firearms/archery ranges across the Commonwealth continue to see increases in use and, in response, we have updated and enhanced nearly all of the ranges that were included in our 2020 Vision for the Future document, with the last several either under construction or nearly designed so that they can be put out to bid in the very near future. November 21, 2020 / 5:09 PM / CBS Pittsburgh. They took 3,659 bears across last year's various seasons. On April 15, 2019, Pennsylvania Game Commission Local State Game Warden Bryan Mowrer crawled "Under The Deck" and into the bear den to talk about the live stream viewers were able to enjoy for the previous several weeks. Statewide. And in every case, our staff rose to the challenge and met the additional demands, overcoming the obstacles presented by the disruption to our staffs ability to communicate and collaborate. The largest bear through all 2020 seasons is the 719-pound male taken with a crossbow on Nov. 7 in Ayr Township, Fulton County, by Abby Strayer, of McConnellsburg. Of interest: Hunters take record number of black bears in Pennsylvania in 2019. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year. Bolts are to be equipped with broadheads with at least two cutting edges upon the same plane throughout the entire length of the cutting surface. License fees are the agencys most stable revenue stream. Yet, the state Game Commission charged him with poaching, killing out of season what was described as the largest bear ever seen in the county. We expanded the number of managed dove fields in all six of the agencys regions, with more than 550 acres prepared for the 2020 season. Final county harvests by region (with 2020 figures in parentheses) are: Northwest 451 (475): Warren, 87 (86); Venango, 81 (84); Jefferson, 72 (76); Clarion, 65 (59); Forest, 44 (61); Butler, 43 (42); Crawford, 38 (43); Erie, 13 (18); and Mercer, 8 (4). From 2010 to 2018 females made up 13 percent of the harvest. For the first time, bear season can be monitored in real-time. more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here. We constantly receive feedback from hunters on how much they appreciate these fields and the hard work put in by the agencys habitat-management crews, as managed dove fields represent the first time that dove hunters in Pennsylvania have a dedicated location on public lands to enjoy fast-action dove hunting. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Bear numbers saw similar declines after high harvests from 2005 to 2007 and 2010 to 2012. Sales totaled 202,043 in 2019, 174,869 in 2018 and, going back further, 147,728 in 2009. click on the Black Bear Harvest link under "Quick Clicks," then click on the map under "Bear Check Station Data." The . In all these areas, the increase in participation resulted in an increase in the responsibilities and workload on our employees. The board also expanded the length of the bear season, providing for the bear archery season to take place for three full weeks in 2020. Conversation about bears:Want to know about black bears in Pennsylvania? Please enable scripts and reload this page. Last Modified 8/3/17. These individuals may not hunt antlered deer during the special firearms season while in possession of a rifle. For ages of bears with legal seals #4411-2105019, For ages of bears with legal seals #2105020 2109264, For ages of bears with legal seals #2109265 21158652, For ages of bears harvested in the NW region, For ages of bears harvested in the SW region, For ages of bears harvested in the NC region, For ages of bears harvested in the SC region, For ages of bears harvested in the NE region, For ages of bears harvested in the SE region, Special Requests to Use State Game Lands Information, Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP). The 2020 . To access the data and learn the age of their bear, a hunter will need to have their legal seal number from the check station certificate. That was the second third of the total harvest. We still anticipate some additional samples through the collection of road-killed deer and clinical suspects. ** Total included Resident Antlertess and Resident Special Regs In both years, only white-tailed deer put more hunters in the woods. Bears were taken in 59 of 67 counties and 22 of Pennsylvanias 23 Wildlife Management Units in the 2021 seasons. Because the current pandemic has placed additional human pressure on global bat populations, the Wildlife Futures and PGC developed and validated COVID-19 testing for bats. We also would like to build upon the successes of Act 107 of 2019, which provided for three days of hunting on Sundays. For ages of bears with legal seals #4411-2105019 The largest bear harvested last season, though, was a 722-pound male taken with a shotgun in the extended season in Letterkenny Township in Franklin County. , especially when getting one for the opportunity to appear before you today and to deliver the and. 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