Post by yihunt on Jan 17, 2010 9:25:59 GMT -4
Pa. Fish and Boat Commission considering license fee increase
Sunday, January 17, 2010
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The newest board member of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission isn't really that new at all.
Lenny Lichvar of Boswell, Somerset County, has filled a previously vacant seat on the board for three years. In 2009 he was reappointed by Gov. Ed Rendell, and was recently sworn in for an eight-year term. He will represent Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin and Somerset counties.
Lichvar's initial selection to fill the empty post was controversial. Some anglers were suspicious of his 40-year involvement in Trout Unlimited, fearing his placement on the board could mean a slam-dunk vote for all fly-fishing matters. Lichvar said there was less concern in the run-up to his reappointment.
"I made it very clear to anyone associated with Trout Unlimited that I was not their member on the board," he said. "I represent the boaters and anglers of Pennsylvania regardless of how they fish or use the resources, and I think my participation on the board has shown that."
As the new decade begins, Lichvar said some of the biggest challenges facing the agency involve funding, habitat degradations including those related to Marcellus shale drilling, and implementation of the commission's new trout management plan.
The agency is expected to run a deficit in 2011, said Lichvar, unless alternative funding can be found. Commissioners have been talking among themselves, he said, about lobbying the state legislature for incremental increases in fishing license fees -- an option Lichvar said he strongly supports.
Pennsylvania anglers pay $22.70 for an adult resident license and haven't seen an increase in several years.
"We need some kind of increase in the next year or so to maintain the services we provide," said Lichvar. "We could make it so [the license fee] would go up a dollar a year. That could be easily sold by legislators to their constituents, something they wouldn't notice much but would maintain the financial integrity of the agency. "
But Lichvar said in the current financial climate, raising fees would be a tough sell in Harrisburg.
"We've been told we won't get anything until the Game Commission gets theirs, unfortunately for both agencies," he said.
Fish and Boat had already begun to refocus on habitat management when Lichvar joined the commission. Plans are to continue on that track.
"I'm more interested in habitat management than fisheries management," he said. "If you don't have habitat you won't have fisheries to manage."
Mitigating the impact of dissolved solids from water used in drilling in Marcellus shale will be a key issue for the agency in coming years. Lichvar said it's likely to be a prime focus of a new executive director who will be hired to replace Doug Austen, who is expected to leave the agency early this year.
"I think one of the things Doug did well was improving our relationship with legislators, anglers and boaters," said Lichvar. "I hope a new director can carry that on ... and will continue to put the resource first. We didn't always see support for that way of doing things among all the commissioners -- they talked 'resource first' but didn't act [on it]. We need an executive director who will lead the commissioners in a resource first philosophy."
Lichvar said a new executive director is also likely to advance the commission's new trout management plan, which calls for an evaluation of thousands of miles of unsurveyed streams and a re-evaluation of many currently stocked trout streams.
As part of the plan, 10 Pennsylvania streams that receive trout stockings will be re-evaluated this year to determine if their high Class B waters could become Class A if stocking were to be discontinued and native trout proliferated.
Lichvar said the concern of some anglers that popular streams could be taken off the stocking list is unfounded.
"We have always stocked trout, especially in the western part of the state, in waters that are not suitable for sustainable, fishable populations of wild trout," he said. "Streams like Loyalhanna Creek, even if they find native trout there, I don't see it ever being taken off the stocking list because in the summer it warms up and is not viable as a native trout fishery."
Lichvar said the trout plan won't be as detrimental to fishing traditions as some anglers suspect.
"The plan calls for us to identify streams that could hold fishable populations of native fish and let them do it without competition from stocked trout," he said.
Fish and Boat commissioners serve with no pay. Lichvar's term ends in 2017. Two seats on the board remain vacant.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The newest board member of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission isn't really that new at all.
Lenny Lichvar of Boswell, Somerset County, has filled a previously vacant seat on the board for three years. In 2009 he was reappointed by Gov. Ed Rendell, and was recently sworn in for an eight-year term. He will represent Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin and Somerset counties.
Lichvar's initial selection to fill the empty post was controversial. Some anglers were suspicious of his 40-year involvement in Trout Unlimited, fearing his placement on the board could mean a slam-dunk vote for all fly-fishing matters. Lichvar said there was less concern in the run-up to his reappointment.
"I made it very clear to anyone associated with Trout Unlimited that I was not their member on the board," he said. "I represent the boaters and anglers of Pennsylvania regardless of how they fish or use the resources, and I think my participation on the board has shown that."
As the new decade begins, Lichvar said some of the biggest challenges facing the agency involve funding, habitat degradations including those related to Marcellus shale drilling, and implementation of the commission's new trout management plan.
The agency is expected to run a deficit in 2011, said Lichvar, unless alternative funding can be found. Commissioners have been talking among themselves, he said, about lobbying the state legislature for incremental increases in fishing license fees -- an option Lichvar said he strongly supports.
Pennsylvania anglers pay $22.70 for an adult resident license and haven't seen an increase in several years.
"We need some kind of increase in the next year or so to maintain the services we provide," said Lichvar. "We could make it so [the license fee] would go up a dollar a year. That could be easily sold by legislators to their constituents, something they wouldn't notice much but would maintain the financial integrity of the agency. "
But Lichvar said in the current financial climate, raising fees would be a tough sell in Harrisburg.
"We've been told we won't get anything until the Game Commission gets theirs, unfortunately for both agencies," he said.
Fish and Boat had already begun to refocus on habitat management when Lichvar joined the commission. Plans are to continue on that track.
"I'm more interested in habitat management than fisheries management," he said. "If you don't have habitat you won't have fisheries to manage."
Mitigating the impact of dissolved solids from water used in drilling in Marcellus shale will be a key issue for the agency in coming years. Lichvar said it's likely to be a prime focus of a new executive director who will be hired to replace Doug Austen, who is expected to leave the agency early this year.
"I think one of the things Doug did well was improving our relationship with legislators, anglers and boaters," said Lichvar. "I hope a new director can carry that on ... and will continue to put the resource first. We didn't always see support for that way of doing things among all the commissioners -- they talked 'resource first' but didn't act [on it]. We need an executive director who will lead the commissioners in a resource first philosophy."
Lichvar said a new executive director is also likely to advance the commission's new trout management plan, which calls for an evaluation of thousands of miles of unsurveyed streams and a re-evaluation of many currently stocked trout streams.
As part of the plan, 10 Pennsylvania streams that receive trout stockings will be re-evaluated this year to determine if their high Class B waters could become Class A if stocking were to be discontinued and native trout proliferated.
Lichvar said the concern of some anglers that popular streams could be taken off the stocking list is unfounded.
"We have always stocked trout, especially in the western part of the state, in waters that are not suitable for sustainable, fishable populations of wild trout," he said. "Streams like Loyalhanna Creek, even if they find native trout there, I don't see it ever being taken off the stocking list because in the summer it warms up and is not viable as a native trout fishery."
Lichvar said the trout plan won't be as detrimental to fishing traditions as some anglers suspect.
"The plan calls for us to identify streams that could hold fishable populations of native fish and let them do it without competition from stocked trout," he said.
Fish and Boat commissioners serve with no pay. Lichvar's term ends in 2017. Two seats on the board remain vacant.