TO: All Members of the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny
FROM: The High HareMan of the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny
SUBJECT: Complete Report 2016-17 "SMALL GAME & FURBEARER HARVESTS"
The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) has issued their harvest report in the recent, November 2017, issue of the PENNSYLVANIA GAME NEWS.
The GAME NEWS article starts out by saying, "Small-game harvests increased for five out of nine small game-game species in 2016-17. But for those that dropped--grouse, squirrel, woodcock and porcupine--harvests were at all-time lows."
Cutting right to the chase; the PGC is reporting for 2016 the harvest for "hare" was, get this, "2,015" hare harvested, up from 738 in 2015 and 601 in 2014. I, personally, found it hard to swallow the 2014 number of "601" and questioned how that number was derived.
The reported number of hunters hunting hare was fairly consistent with "3,014" in 2016, 3,434 in 2015. In 2014 a whopping 4,796 hare hunters took only 601 hare. In 2013 the number of hare hunters was back down to a more reasonable "2,410" and these hunters took 620 hare, supposedly. The 2016 number is a pretty good hunter to kill ratio or close to 0.668 hares for every hare hunter. In Pennsylvania?
The GAME NEWS article goes on to explain how many surveys were sent and how many returned. The article does not explain how the process came up with these numbers.
"In providing reliable long-term data, these surveys inform management decisions for many species." The report contends.
"Three separate questionnaires were mailed to random samples of Pennsylvania hunters and trappers following the conclusion of the 2016-17 small-game hunting and furtaking seasons, and the response rate was higher than 50 percent for each." I, personally, have never received a "Game-Take Survey" and I don't know anyone who has received and returned a survey.
"Game-Take questionnaires were mailed to 18,001 license buyers, [or 0.024% of all hunters] and 9,520 were completed and returned [ 0.0126%]. Furtaker questionnaires were sent to 8,000 and returned by 4,478 individuals. And 1,328 of 2,500 Mentored Youth Hunter questionnaires were returned.
More than 40 percent of respondents completed surveys online.
Full reports of Game-Take and Furtaker surveys, including results back to 1983, are available at www.pgc.pa.gov. Click on Information & Resources, then Media & Reports & Surveys, then find the reports under Annual Wildlife Management Reports.
In summary, the 2016-17 surveys show the number of hunters decreased bor eight of nine small-game species. Harvest per 100 hunter-days increased for eight of nine species."
