HARRISBURG - Few changes were proposed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission board of game commissioners at this week's first quarterly meeting of the year at PGC headquarters to set seasons and bag limits for the 2014-15 hunting and trapping seasons.

In addition, there is no change in the leadership of the board as president Bob Schlemmer, vice-president Dave Putnam and secretary Brian Hoover were reappointed to positions they held last year. Schlemmer represents Southwest Region 2, Putnam represents Northcentral Region 3 and Hoover represents Southeast Region 8.As was the case this past fall and will be for this year's spring gobbler season, several seasons in the 2014-15 license year will open or run about a week later than they do in many years to accommodate calendar swings related to the timing of Thanksgiving. Public comments on all proposed 2014-15 seasons and bag limits, as well as other board actions, will be accepted between now and the board's next meeting, Monday and Tuesday, April 7 and 8.In addition to finalizing seasons and bag limits for 2014-15 at the April quarterly meeting, the board will receive staff recommendations for antlerless deer license allocations for the 23 WMUs. Deer harvest estimates for the 2013-14 seasons will be available in mid-March.Other modifications proposed for the 2014-15 seasons include changes to fall turkey seasons in several Wildlife Management Units; new extended bear hunting opportunities in WMUs 2C and 4B, an expansion of the fisher trapping season to WMUs 1B, 3B and 3C and increased possession limits for small game.Proposed deer seasons for 2014-15 will retain the split, five-day antlered deer season from Monday-Friday, Dec. 1-5, and seven-day concurrent season from Saturday-Saturday, Dec. 6-13, in 12 Wildlife Management Units comprised of WMUs 2A, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4D and 4E. Also retained the two-week, Monday-Saturday, Dec. 1-13, concurrent, antlered and antlerless deer season in WMUs 1A, 1B, 2B, 3A, 3D, 4A, 4C, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D.Antler restrictions in place for adult and senior license holders since the 2011-12 seasons have been retained. Also retained is the "three-up" on one side, not counting a brow tine, provision for western WMUs 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and 2D, and the three points on one side in all other WMUs.WMUs 2C and 4B each would be open to bear hunting for four days in deer season, beginning the first Wednesday of the 2014 statewide general deer season December 3. WMU 2C has had a slightly increasing bear population trend, and highway mortalities of bears have been slowly increasing in the area, and there's been a noticeable increase in human-bear conflicts there.WMU 4B also has had an increasing trend of human-bear conflicts, and several incidents in recent years involving home entry or injury to pets and people. Highway mortality of bears also has increased there, as has the bear harvest, which has increased by about 20 percent annually since 2003.Decreasing turkey populations prompted the preliminary adoption of a two-week fall turkey season in WMUs 3A, 3B and 3C. Previously, there had been a three-week season there, and the three-day Thanksgiving season segment would continue despite the one-week decrease in the earlier segment.Also, 2014 marks the final year of the hen harvest rate and survival rate study, so those WMUs in the study area will continue with the season lengths implemented last year. Also proposed was retaining a three-day fall turkey season in WMU 5A, but shifting it from midweek to a Thursday-through-Saturday framework.For the 2015 spring gobbler season, which is proposed to run from May 2-30, the board continued the change in legal hunting hours to reflect the following: from May 2-16, legal shooting hours will be one-half hour before sunrise until noon timeframe; and from May 18-30, hunters may hunt all day, from one-half hour before sunrise until one-half hour after sunset. Also proposed is a one-day Spring Gobbler Youth Hunt, Saturday, April 25, 2015, which will run from one-half hour before sunrise until noon.It has been three years since Pennsylvania has placed wild pheasants into any of the state's four Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas, which aim to restore to the state self-sustaining populations ring-necked pheasants. States which initially provided wild pheasants as part of the restoration program have been reluctant to part with their own wild stock because of overall declines in their wild pheasant populations.Monday night the board learned permission was received from an American Indian tribe in Montana to trap 300 wild birds and transfer them to Pennsylvania for release. Details about when a trapping attempt would commence and where any transferred pheasants would be released remained to be worked out.