Post by trophiesonly on Mar 13, 2011 13:53:25 GMT -4
Notebook: Wildlife agencies spared
Sunday, March 13, 2011
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Neither of Pennsylvania's wildlife management agencies are funded by the state treasury, which may protect them to a large extent from Gov. Tom Corbett's budget ax.
About 51 percent of the Game Commission's $80 million budget is generated through license sales. Some $10 million comes from the federal Pittman-Robertson Act excise tax on hunting equipment and ammunition. The PGC gets about $1 million annually in federal wildlife grants. Much of the rest comes from oil, gas and timber leases on 305 state game lands purchased, including mineral rights, largely using money from license fees.
"There is no impact on the Pennsylvania Game Commission," said Game Commission executive director Carl Roe.
At the Fish and Boat Commission, about 67 percent of its $60 million annual budget comes from license fees. About 15 percent is raised through federal Dingell-Johnson Act taxes on fishing equipment, and the agency gets another million from federal wildlife grants. The PFBC manages the wildlife in all of Pennsylvania's waters, but owns only about 43,000 acres of real estate -- much of that without mineral rights.
At a hastily arranged meeting of the full Fish and Boat Commission last week, the board approved two new forms of revenue -- a natural gas leasing program and a water access program on property it controls.
Under the rules of the gas program, said agency vice president Robert Bachman, in a prepared statement, the agency may permit drilling and production operations only when the projects will have little or no negative impact on the property.
"Allowing access to the gas under our properties via surrounding properties which are already under lease ensures that anglers and boaters derive the economic benefits of the activity without exposing the commonwealth's aquatic resources to any greater level of risk," he said.
Deer harvest
Hunters killed an estimated 316,240 deer during Pennsylvania's 2010-2011 seasons. That's slightly more than during the previous seasons, when hunters took 308,920 deer.
As reported by the Game Commission, the biggest gains were in the antlered deer harvest -- a 13 percent increase from 108,330 in 2009-2010 to 122,930 in 2010-2011. The antlerless kill decreased 4 percent, from 200,590 in 2009-2010 to 193,310 in 2010-2011.
Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/11072/1131513-358.stm#ixzz1GVykXNCu
Sunday, March 13, 2011
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Neither of Pennsylvania's wildlife management agencies are funded by the state treasury, which may protect them to a large extent from Gov. Tom Corbett's budget ax.
About 51 percent of the Game Commission's $80 million budget is generated through license sales. Some $10 million comes from the federal Pittman-Robertson Act excise tax on hunting equipment and ammunition. The PGC gets about $1 million annually in federal wildlife grants. Much of the rest comes from oil, gas and timber leases on 305 state game lands purchased, including mineral rights, largely using money from license fees.
"There is no impact on the Pennsylvania Game Commission," said Game Commission executive director Carl Roe.
At the Fish and Boat Commission, about 67 percent of its $60 million annual budget comes from license fees. About 15 percent is raised through federal Dingell-Johnson Act taxes on fishing equipment, and the agency gets another million from federal wildlife grants. The PFBC manages the wildlife in all of Pennsylvania's waters, but owns only about 43,000 acres of real estate -- much of that without mineral rights.
At a hastily arranged meeting of the full Fish and Boat Commission last week, the board approved two new forms of revenue -- a natural gas leasing program and a water access program on property it controls.
Under the rules of the gas program, said agency vice president Robert Bachman, in a prepared statement, the agency may permit drilling and production operations only when the projects will have little or no negative impact on the property.
"Allowing access to the gas under our properties via surrounding properties which are already under lease ensures that anglers and boaters derive the economic benefits of the activity without exposing the commonwealth's aquatic resources to any greater level of risk," he said.
Deer harvest
Hunters killed an estimated 316,240 deer during Pennsylvania's 2010-2011 seasons. That's slightly more than during the previous seasons, when hunters took 308,920 deer.
As reported by the Game Commission, the biggest gains were in the antlered deer harvest -- a 13 percent increase from 108,330 in 2009-2010 to 122,930 in 2010-2011. The antlerless kill decreased 4 percent, from 200,590 in 2009-2010 to 193,310 in 2010-2011.
Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/11072/1131513-358.stm#ixzz1GVykXNCu