Outdoors

HARRISBURG – This is clearly a year of change so far as the 2010-11 hunting seasons approved by the Pennsylvania Game Commission board of game commissioners at its quarterly meeting Tuesday, April 20.

Drawing the most attention of sportsmen are the changes to the deer and black bear season, but changes have also been made for small game hunting and the fall turkey and spring gobbler seasons. In addition, preliminary approval was given to the long-rumored Wild Pheasant Recovery Area for the Hegins Valley area of western Schuylkill County.

HARRISBURG – At Tuesday's quarterly meeting of the Pennsylvania Game Commission board of game commissioners to set seasons and bag limits for the 2010-11 hunting seasons, public opinion weighed heavily over the research and recommendations of the agency's biologists and game-management personnel when by a 6-2 vote the number of days to hunt doe in four wildlife management units was reduced and the allocation of antlerless tags was arbitrarily reduced by 32,200 in seven WMUs.

A Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Basic Boating Course for operators of boats with outboards of 25 hp or greater and personal watercraft born on or after January 1, 1982, will be presented free of charge at Beltzville State Park, Tuesday, March 30, and Thursday, April 1, from 6-10 p.m. each night.

All participants must pre-register by calling the state park at 610-377-0045 and must attend both sessions. This course is designed to supply boaters with practical information so they can make better informed decisions on the water.

Evidently, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is even more dependable than the U.S. Postal Service when it comes to neither snow, nor sleet preventing appointed rounds when comes to presenting the agency's Deer Management Open House Program.