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Intro...
Testimony Quarterly Meeting Franklin Pa. Sept. 24th 2012
As some commissioners seated here
today and Director Roe are aware, I as many have testified
to this board over the years as disappointed concerned sportsman
regarding the management of our deer herd and neglect of hunter
opinion and input toward that management. As those trips from
me accompanied by my son and many others have resulted in
little to no change in deer management, many of us sportsmen
have stopped making the trip to Elmerton on our dime, as today
Pennsylvania deer hunters continue to be a relative non-factor
in deer management criteria.
In response to concern and criticism,
this agency has recently agreed to become more transparent
in their meeting process, identified by President Martone
and the board. Personally this new initiative born from outside
pressure, and implemented only now in 2012, is far too late
and must move forward aggressively to correct many public
relation and game management concerns that sportsmen continually
express. Circumstances like Dr. Rosenberry this season requesting
an increase in 2G doe allocations by a drastic 86%, radically
deviating from his previous requests since 2005, all of which
were identified for herd stabilization, makes little to no
sense, and flies in stark contrast of sportsman observation
of low deer densities in that management unit. These are the
types of issues that need public vetting to validate, insuring
decisions are benefiting the totality of deer management.
Since 2001 Pennsylvania deer management is overlooking the
balance needed for social-economic needs with science. As
I stated, too many sportsmen, (the funding and in my opinion
primary customers of this agency), believe science based management
with little to no concern for hunter success is far too weighted
in doe allocation decisions in many management units.
This perception of lacking hunter opinion and input which
I allude to, is validated within the deer management staff,
as expressed in an article in the August edition of Pennsylvania
Game News by Jeannine Tardiff Fleegle, who you know is one
of the agency's main deer biologists. For those that may not
have read it, I highly recommend reading it to grasp the entirety
of its condescending expression toward hunters. Keep in mind
the Pennsylvania Game News is the official publication of
the agency and allows no rebuttals or letters to the editor
to be printed. The article is titled “Enough” expressing a
chastising tone as if she is speaking to an adolescent child.
That assessment of the title is confirmed when she continues
on with using a spoiled child at a Target Department Store
not getting a blue ball and throwing a temper tantrum as a
sort of euphemism or analogy to represent the frustration
and disgust from hunters about the deer management program.
I have been contacted by sportsmen that are highly offended
and insulted being compared to as a child. Further condescending
remarks like referencing The Rolling Stones Song Title “You
can't always get what you want”! Are reprehensible! She further
goes on to use analogies such as 8-track tapes and 5 ¼ floppy
discs linking our hunter's positions as stuck in the 70's
and the final insult is when she rhetorically asks the question,
“do doctors still treat with leaches?
As a small business owner, if any
of my employees addressed my customers in this degrading disrespectful
manner, there would be serious ramifications! This agency
is supposedly professing a new commitment to transparency
and connecting with the public as expressed in a recent News
Release from Outreach Coordinator Samantha Pedder. One must
ask are hunter’s part of the public they want to embrace with
this outreach? Hunting license sales have atypically accelerated
in decline here since 2004, and the recent survey results
from The US Fish and Wildlife Service and The Dept. of the
Interior, identify a national increase in hunting and fishing
participation .... sadly which Pennsylvania is not a part
of. Contrary to agency opinion, Pennsylvania is NOT in line
with any national hunting trend, we have created an unenviable
trend all our own!
I request as President
of The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania and a seated member
of The Governor's Advisory Council, that this board of commissioners
will see it clear to put more respect for hunters and sportsmen
back in the decisions and attitudes of their deer management
staff personnel. They must be made aware that “forest based
management objectives” as Biologist Fleegle refers, is not
the “end all” regarding how deer in this state need to be
managed. Juvenile disrespectful pompous journalism like that
of biologist Fleegle, essentially spitting in the face of
sportsmen, certainly contributes to the poor public relation
issues surrounding this agency. In the interest of reparation
to our sportsmen, I am requesting at the very least, an apology
be printed in the next issue of Game News rescinding remarks
from Biologist Fleegle that are not only insidious, but disrespectful
toward those that pay her compensation.
Randy Santucci
121 Beaver Grade Road
Mckees Rocks Pa. 15136
President of The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania www.gousp.org
Member of The Governor's Advisory Council for Hunting, Fishing
and Conservation
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