Deadline looms for special PA youth pheasant hunt opportunity

The Pennsylvania Game Commission, the Central PA Chapter of Pheasants Forever and numerous landowners throughout upper Northumberland and Montour counties are soon to see the fruits of more than a decade of labor.

It will be evident on the faces of 48 junior hunters from across the state via a special wild pheasant youth hunt to be held in November. The application process is currently under way, with the deadline at the end of business Friday and a random drawing for 48 one-rooster-only permits happening shortly thereafter.

“Members of the local Pheasants Forever chapter are excited that 10-15 years of hard work will pay off with a fun youth hunt. We felt it was important that the first official opportunity to pursue pheasants within the Wild Pheasant Restoration Area would be for young hunters,” said Pheasants Forever wildlife biologist Kurt Bond.

Habitat is key

Central Pennsylvania used to be a wild pheasant hunting hot spot in the 1970s before a variety of factors affected the population drastically. In an effort to reverse the trend, the game commission designated several Wild Pheasant Restoration Areas (WPRA) throughout the state, focused on building habitat that could sustain pheasants year-round and released a number of birds relocated from the western United States.

“The success of these wild pheasant releases was the result of having quality habitat to support the pheasants,” said Tom Keller, wildlife biologist with the game commission. “We lost pheasants because we lost the habitat in the state to support them. The Central Susquehanna Wild Pheasant Recovery Area demonstrates that restoring wild pheasants is absolutely possible, but requires the appropriate habitat for success.

“There are no shortcuts, you must have the habitat.”

To help create viable habitat, the game commission partnered with the United State Department of Agriculture in expanding the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) in our area, where farmers and other landowners sign a contract for a 10 or 15-year period and are paid to plant warm-weather grasses and other wildlife-sustaining crops.

“A lot of early CREP farms started coming out of the program about five years ago. The WPRA lost a significant amount of land between 2011 and 2013 — I’d say hundreds of acres, much of that prime habitat,” said Bond.

Keller added, “In some of those cases, habitat was mowed down and gone within a day.”

But the trends have been improving lately.

“Between 2014 and 2016, we haven’t really lost any land, but really didn’t gain any, either. Since then, we’ve seen a significant increase in land owners getting involved with the CREP program,” Bond said. “The nice thing is, you don’t need to dedicate your whole farm to the program. If we can get farms to sign up just a small portion of their land — like areas around fencerows, field edges or other non-tillable land — it will allow our pheasant populations to safely expand beyond the pockets they currently are found.”

Youth hunt next step

Both Bond and Keller are hoping the youth hunt will help open doors with new landowners, pointing out that a successful hunting experience will not only validate all the hard work to date, but will likely open doors for expansion for the project.

“There are a lot of people involved in this project, but the most important is the landowner. Without having cooperative landowners that allow us to develop the best possible pheasant habitat, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” said Bond. “It is important to note that signing up for the CREP program doesn’t mean you give up rights to allow the public on your land. You still get to decide who has access.”

As for the coming youth hunt, junior hunters ages 12-16 with a valid PA hunting license are eligible to apply through this coming Friday afternoon. Forty-eight names will be drawn at random on Aug. 18 and notified shortly thereafter. They will not have to purchase the new $25 pheasant stamp for this special hunting opportunity.

The selected youth hunters will be signed up to hunt either Nov. 4 or Nov. 11, beginning the day with a short presentation on safety. The participants will then be divided up and paired with a hunting mentor from the Pheasants Forever organization … with a ratio of two youth hunters to one mentor. A bird dog will be provided in each mini-group and a parent or guardian for each youth is encouraged to tag along and share in the experience. The groups will gather around lunchtime for a quick meal, photos and to share stories.

“A package will be sent out to each kid selected, with information on where to meet, times, what the day will look like, what regulations they’ll need to observe (such as wearing 250-square inches of fluorescent orange) and other information they will need,” said Bond.

The areas to be hunted are all on private land voluntarily made available for the youth hunt experience and is located near the towns of Turbotville and Washingtonville.

Applications, can be found at www.pgc.pa.gov/HuntTrap/Hunting/Pages/JrPheasantHunt.aspx, and can be filled out online and printed, or the blank application can be printed and filled in by hand. Sending instructions can be found on the application.