Look here for links in the magazine, both back issues and current, as well as links to related Web sites.

FROM A PRESS RELEASE:

schuylkill logoThe Schuylkill River Sojourn is a 7-day, 112-mile guided canoe/kayak trip organized by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area. Participants can register for one day or the entire event. They paddle 14-18 miles per day, making stops for lunch and water breaks. They are provided with three meals a day, a place to camp, programs at lunch stops and campsites, gear transportation, and shuttle service back to their cars at the end of each day. Free T-shirts are included with registration.

Registration Opens April 1 for Full-Trip
Registrants; General Registration Opens April 15.

Sojourn fees:
Full Trip: $550 per adult; $420 children ages 8-15 (not recommended for under 8)
Individual Day: $85 per day per adult (Friday June 13 is $75, since no dinner is included); $65 for children ages 8-15 ($55 for Friday June 13).
Member fees represent an automatic 10% discount
A $10 late fee will be added after May 18
Register early! Space is limited. For safety reasons, only 100 canoes or kayaks are allowed on the water per day. Registrations received after May 18 will be automatically charged a $10 late fee. No registrations can be accepted after May 31.

by Publisher Al Holliday

Build your Pennsylvania library, or look for these titles at your local public library. To order a book, take the review to a bookseller or contact the book’s publisher directly.

If you’ve recently published a book about a Pennsylvania topic, you are welcome to submit it for possible review in this column. Send it to Book for Review, Attn.: Publisher, Pennsylvania Magazine, PO Box 755, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0755.

 

REGIONAL

pittsburghesebookcover_300x450Yinz— Speaking Pittsburghese 

Barbara Johnson. 2013. Oxford University Press. 266 pp. $39.95

Do people in the Pittsburgh area talk funny? The author has devoted some 266 pages to the topic. And she certainly covers a wealth of words and expressions that are peculiar, odd, different or unique, most to the Pittsburgh area and some that are known throughout Pennsylvania.

Yinz is the western Pennsylvania version of you all or you’nz, of course. She traces this expression and many others all the way to original settlers and those who followed and made their own changes in pronunciation of common words and phrases.

She deals with such terms as slippy and redd up and nubby— even the “shirt needs ironed” that is commonplace throughout the state. Then to further explore the language issue, she discusses terms such as sammitch (sandwich), jynt (Giant), jeet yet (did you eat yet?), filum (film), hauscome (how come), we got (we have), Pixberg (PIttsburgh) and many many others.

Would the usual reader in central and eastern Pennsylvania find this a valued text? Not sure, but students of language and library directors might want to pick up this book as a valued resource.

mural arts smallMural Arts@30

Janie Golden and David Updike, editors. 2014 Temple University Press. 208 pp. $35

The Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia is one of the nation’s largest and most successful public art organizations.

The program has sponsored more than 3,800 morals and public art projects in every neighborhood in the city. In the process, thousands of people of all ages have been engaged in active participation, some ex-offenders have been trained for new jobs, and the city’s struggling commercial corridors have been transformed.

The editors have assembled articles about 21 projects that have been completed since 2009. The book could serve as a guide to leaders in small and large urban areas who may be interested in changing the public space in their own communities.

HISTORY

LettersMontanaSheepManLetters from a Montana Sheep Man 

Darlene Schneck. (Self-published on Amazon.com) 2013. (Only available at Amazon.com.) 146 pp. $17.40

This is a book about a man—Isaac Schultz—born in Hereford, Berks County, in 1851. After schooling in Pennsylvania and gaining a degree from Ursinus College, he taught school for a while but, always restless, he then moved to Florida and operated an orange grove for four years.

When his parents in Pennsylvania died in the late 1870s, he returned to his family home long enough to help settle the estate, and then headed west. He ended up owning a sheep farm in Montana. He wrote a number of letters to his brothers back east in the 1800s, and that is where this book really starts. The author is the great-great-niece of Isaac and was able to obtain copies of those letters, which have accounts of sheep raising and issues related to farming in the West in the 1880s. Isaac nearly went bankrupt because of a severe winter in 1886-87, when most of his sheep perished.

Thinking perhaps he had bragged too much of his successes in Montana, Isaac decided to cut off any more contact with his family and stopped writing. He married and worked in other places in several states. In 1930, his wife noticed his health was failing. She finally persuaded Isaac to reconnect with his remaining brothers, and the family members again wrote letters back and forth in 1930 and ‘31. The author says the 1930-31 letters provide a window on the daily lives of ordinary people struggling to get by during the Great Depression.

The letters “weave a tale of a man lost and then found, surrounded in the end by the love of his Schwenkfelder family.” Isaac passed on in early 1931, but his wife said that he was pleased that he finally reestablished contacts with his family.

The book’s author is an 8th generation Schneck from Schnecksville and worked for 25 years in book publishing at Rodale in Emmaus. She includes numerous Pennsylvania family photos and other records, as well as photocopied pages of many of the handwritten letters from the 1880s and the 1930s. The book should be of interest to people who like a positive outcome of what appeared to be a 44-year-old mystery of a missing brother far away.

lumbering a way of lifeLumbering: A Way of Life at Pardee 

Jonathan D. Bastian. 2013. Creative Space (Only available at Amazon.com).
97 pp. $11.99

This book is mainly a history of Ario Pardee, his lumber company in Union County in the late 1800s, and the start of state involvement in developing and protecting our forests.

The author believes that Pardee is the person responsible for the elimination of virgin forests starting in the 1870s in the Union and Centre County areas. His company provided lumber for use in coal mines and for many other projects.

His lumber company employed thousands of residents in the area, which stimulated economic development there starting in the late 1800s. Within 25 years, the loss of so many acres of mature trees caused members of the General Assembly to consider ways to rejuvenate the stripped lands in that and other areas with lumbering activity in an effort to save our forest lands. They created the state Bureau of Forestry in the first years of the 20th century. In central Pennsylvania, the state purchased some 14,000 acres of land that had been the basis of the Pardee logging operation.

Later, purchases of timber land of nearly 200,000 acres in Union and surrounding counties formed the basis of Bald Eagle State Forest. The author says the state-created renewed forest system has become a hallmark of Pennsylvania. In recent years, waves of invasive insects and plants are causing much damage to our forests. Attention now has to be given to dealing with these threats to our environment and preservation of these resources.

civil war pa african americanThe Civil War in Pennsylvania—
The African American Experience

Samuel W. Black, editor. 2013. Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation (Senator John Heinz History
Center). 239 pp. $29.95

This Civil War book is devoted to essays covering civil rights, emigration, abolitionism, armed resistance, service in the war, Camp William Penn, plus a collection of photos of African Americans in the war.

The writers treat the war as one over slavery and the opportunity to liberate the masses of Africans from bondage. This view is not one of understanding the war as a means to restore the union, but to build a new union that includes liberty for all in practice, not in theory.

The editor has collected, in addition to the photos, a wide variety of maps, paintings and copies of documents. Overall, the book will enable readers to gain an appreciation of the roles that black citizens played in their quest for freedom, nationhood and self-determination before, during and after the Civil War.

The texts in the book are well written. This would be a useful addition to school, college and public libraries and to the personal libraries of students who have an interest in this aspect of American life.

STATE PERSONALITIES

grandma s walkGrandma Gatewood’s Walk

Ben Montgomery. 2014. Chicago Review Press. 288 pp. $26.95

Emma Gatewood was billed as the woman “who saved the Appalachian Trail.” In 1955, this 67-year-old mother of 11 decided to walk the 2,186 miles of the trail and, in doing so, became the first solo woman to claim that distinction. In her home state, Ohio, she had read about the trail and what it entailed and decided for several reasons to give it a try. She had not told all her relatives of her efforts.

As she walked along the trail, starting in Georgia and walking through the 13 other states (including the 229 miles through Pennsylvania), local residents along the trail contacted newspaper reporters. They soon reported about the older lady and her plan to be the first woman, walking alone, to do a thru-walk, the term used for one who walks the whole trail.

National media picked up the story, and her saga became known to her children, who wished her well. Everywhere she went, people asked her “Why?” and her answer always was “Because it was there. It seemed like a good lark.” The total walk took her 146 days and cost her less than $200, as she was given lodging and food from well-wishers along the way.

After, she was invited to be on television shows, including Groucho Marx’s and Art Linkletter’s show. And, to put her in the Believe It Or Not museum, she found the 1955 experience so fulfilling that she walked the trail twice more, in 1957 and 1964, making her the first person, at least at the time, to walk it three times.

As she walked the trail and was interviewed by reporters frequently, she would speak out about overly rough stretches and areas that had poor maintenance, and usually the coverage would lead to improvements. The author states that the media attention to the trail was unprecedented—consider that her first walk was in the mid-1950s—and led to more and more people trying the walk.

A national organization reported that, as of 2013, more than 11,000 people are thru-walkers. Emma, back in her Ohio home, passed on in 1973. To gather information for this biography, the author spoke to her children, read all of her diaries, sought newspaper reports and spoke to people along the trail who were of help to her. It is a positive and heartwarming book for readers of any age.

keystone tombstones civil warKeystone Tombstones, Civil War. 

Joe Farrell and Joe Farley with Lawrence Knorr. 2013. Sunbury Press. 199 pp. $19.95

This book is part of a series on tombstones in our state. The authors were contacted in 2012 about doing a special one on subjects related to the Civil War, as 2013 was the anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg. The result is words and photos about events and people associated with the Civil War.

Chapters are devoted to Gettysburg, Jennie Wade, Thaddeus Stevens, John W. Geary, George G. Meade, Galusha Pennypacker, Winfield S. Hancock, black soldiers in the Civil War, Andrew G. Curtin and our Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, among 25 others. Illustrations include studio portraits, mostly of the ranking staff; graves; and period illustrations showing events related to the Civil War and the aftermath, such as various battlefield scenes of soldiers fighting and Congress considering the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Grave sites of selected soldiers are described in the chapters, and information is given as to where to see them and how to get there. For such a somber topic, the book is still quite interesting to read. A family could use this book to plan a weekend trip around one part of the state and learn more about the Civil War than they had ever considered.

life keystone stateLife in the Keystone State

Dennis Wolfe. 2013. Schiffer Publishing. 176 pp in large format. $34.99

Dennis Wolfe loves to travel and loves to take photos, and he has combined these habits in his Life in the Keystone State book. Now retired from a teaching career in central Pennsylvania, Dennis has produced a handsome volume of his photos taken across the state, in like manner as his previous volume, Small Town Pennsylvania, that we reviewed in these pages a few years ago.

In addition to hundreds of visually interesting photos, plus captions, he has presented accounts or stories of five individuals who have made contributions in many ways to life and activities in our state: Anne Beiler, founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzel; George Leader, former governor and retirement homes developer; Steve Sheetz, CEO of Sheetz convenience stores; Michael Smerconish, radio and television commentator; and Brady Wegener, a “first-class performer”seen on YouTube. The book is highly recommended for school and public libraries as well as one’s family library, at least for ideas for one’s own travels to places to see.

 

HOMEPAGE FOR PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE, A BI-MONTHLY PRINT MAGAIZNE, 1-800-537-2624

January/February 2014

January/February 2014

FEATURES:

Hyphenating a City’s Name

How President Roosevelt helped to end a mine strike and forever changed the spelling of Wilkes-Barre
by James A. Wert

Watchmaking in Lititz
Lititz Watch Technicum trains a new generation in the centuries-old craft in the town known for chocolate, pretzels and Moravians
by Stephanie Kalina-Metzger

Winter Windows
Showcasing the “sugar-coated” season through the eyes of Pennsylvania photographers the king’s speech and a daughter’s regal summer. A Philadelphia lawyer pioneered the techniques used to treat King George VI’s famous stutter, and a teenage daughter recalls the European trip.
by Paul Greenhalgh

Our March/April 2014 issue mailed February 24. Cover photo by William Sisson of Reedsville who took this spring photo in Brown Township, Mifflin County, of a lane that leads to  several Amish farms in the Kishacoquillas Valley.

Our March/April 2014 issue mailed February 24. Cover photo by William Sisson of Reedsville who took this spring photo in Brown Township, Mifflin County, of a lane that leads to several Amish farms in the Kishacoquillas Valley.

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently ran a story about river otters returning to Western Pennsylvania:

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/outdoors/2014/02/23/Elusive-river-otter-has-returned-to-Western-Pennsylvania/stories/201402230079%20via%20@pittsburghpg

At the Pennsylvania Game Commission site:

https://www.pgc.state.pa.us/portal

You can find information about otters on the Pennsylvania Game Commission site HERE. (you can right click and download the PDF to your computer). See the full site HERE.   The management plan for the PGC for otters is HERE  (PDF to download).

More on River Otters by Cindy Ross

(see the article in the March/April 2014 issue)

A member of the mustelid family, the river otter is closely related to the mink and weasel. An adult weighs 12 to 20 pounds, which includes a 12- to 20-inch tail.

Otters do not hibernate in the winter and are active year-round. They swim fast—up to seven miles per hour— and can dive to 60 feet, travel underwater for a quarter-mile and hold their breath for up to four minutes. While under water, their heart rate drops to slow the flow of blood and oxygen. They can tread water for long periods of time, allowing them to keep their head and neck above the water’s surface to look around.

On land, otters are even faster, able to run at the speed of 18 miles an hour. The soles of their webbed hind feet have rough protrusions that act like studded snow tires.

Long, stiff whiskers help otters feel for food in murky waters. Their diet consists of mainly fish, but they also eat crawfish, clams, frogs and toads, tadpoles, salamanders, snails, turtles, earthworms, snakes and birds.

Play is considered a mark of high intelligence in an animal, and the river otter is the play-baby of them all, sliding on ice and snow on purpose. They’ve been filmed shooting down muddy banks, chasing and wrestling with one another, and juggling sticks, stones and even their food before they eat it.

Since the otters’ presence in streams and lakes is an indicator of the water’s purity, some environmentalists are concerned about the effect of increased Marcellus Shale drilling in the state on the otters’ habitat. The extracting process used by the gas industry has the potential to silt up the state’s waterways, which could impact the otters’ habitat and ultimately the otter population. Healthy populations of wildlife are never something to take for granted.

###

The following is from the Game Commissions page at https://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=576240&mode=2

 

2013-14 Hunting Seasons and Bag Limits
Downloadable Calendar of PA 2013-14 Hunting & Trapping SeasonsDownload 2013-14 Hunting Seasons and Bag Limits 2013-14 Migratory Game Bird Brochure

2013-14 Season Forecasts


These are the seasons and bag limits for most hunting and trapping seasons from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014.

SQUIRRELS, Red, Gray, Black and Fox (Combined): Special season for eligible junior hunters, with or without required license, and mentored youth – Oct. 12 –18 (6 daily, field possession limit of 12).

SQUIRRELS, Red, Gray, Black and Fox (Combined): Oct. 19–Nov. 30; Dec. 16–24 and Dec. 26-Feb. 22 (6 daily, field possession limit of 12).

RUFFED GROUSE: Oct. 19–Nov. 30, Dec. 16 –24 and Dec. 26 –Jan. 25 (2 daily, field possession limit of 4).

RABBIT (Cottontail) Special season for eligible junior hunters, with or without required license: Oct. 12 –19 (4 daily, field possession limit of 8).

RABBIT (Cottontail): Oct. 26 –Nov. 30, Dec. 16–24 and Dec. 26–Feb. 22 (4 daily, field possession limit of 8).

PHEASANT: Special season for eligible junior hunters, with or without required license – Oct. 12–19 (2 daily, field possession limit of 4). Male pheasants only in WMUs 2A, 2C, 4C, 4E, 5A and 5B. Male and female pheasants may be taken in all other WMUs. There is no open season for the taking of pheasants in any Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas in any WMU.

PHEASANT: Male only in WMUs 2A, 2C, 4C, 4E, 5A and 5B – Oct. 26 –Nov. 30, Dec 16 –24 and Dec. 26 –Feb 22. Male and female may be taken in all other WMUs – Oct. 26 –Nov. 30, Dec. 16 –24 and Dec. 26 –Feb. 22 (2 daily, field possession limit of 4). No open season for pheasants in any Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas.

BOBWHITE QUAIL: Oct. 26 –Nov. 30 (4 daily, field possession limit of 8). (Closed in WMUs 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D.)

HARES(SNOWSHOE RABBITS) OR VARYING HARES: Dec. 26–Jan. 1, in all WMUs except WMUs 3B, 3C and 3D, where season will run from Dec. 26–28 (1 daily, field possession limit of 2).

WOODCHUCKS (GROUNDHOGS): No closed season, except on Sundays and during the regular firearms deer seasons. No limit.

PORCUPINES: Sept. 1–Mar. 31 (3 daily with a season limit of 10). Closed during the overlap with the regular firearms deer seasons.

CROWS: July 5 –April 6, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. No limit.

WILD TURKEY (Male or Female): WMU 1B – Nov. 2 –9 and Nov. 28 –30; WMU 2B (Shotgun and bow and arrow) – Nov. 2 –22 and Nov. 28 –30; WMUs 1A, 2A and 2D – Nov. 2 –16 and Nov. 28 –30; WMUs 2C, 2E, 4A, 4B and 4D – Nov. 2 –22 and Nov. 28 –30; WMUs 2F, 2G and 2H – Nov. 2 –16 and Nov. 28 –30; WMUs 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4C and 4E – Nov. 2 –22 and Nov. 28 –30; WMU 5A – Nov. 5 –7; WMUs 5B, 5C and 5D – CLOSED TO FALL TURKEY HUNTING.

SPRING GOBBLER (Bearded bird only): Special season for eligible junior hunters, with required license, and mentored youth – April 26, 2014. Only 1 spring gobbler may be taken during this hunt.

SPRING GOBBLER (Bearded bird only): May 3 –31, 2014. Daily/season limit is 1; season limit may be expanded to 2 by persons who possess a valid special wild turkey license. From May 3 –17, legal hunting hours are one –half hour before sunrise until noon; from May 19 –31, legal hunting hours are one –half hour before sunrise until one –half hour after sunset.

BLACK BEAR (Statewide) Archery: Nov. 18 –22. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (Statewide): Nov. 23 –27. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 4C, 4D and 4E): Dec. 4 –7. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D): Dec. 2 –14. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D): Dec. 2 –7. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D) Archery: Sept. 21 –Nov. 16. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 5B) Archery: Oct. 5 –Nov. 16. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D) Muzzleloader: Oct. 19 –26. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D) Special Firearms: Oct. 24 –26, for junior and senior license holders, disabled hunters with a permit to use a vehicle as a blind and resident active duty military.

ELK (Antlered or Antlerless): Nov. 4 –9. Only one elk may be taken during the license year.

ELK, EXTENDED (Antlered and Antlerless): Nov. 11 –16. Only one elk may be taken during the license year. Eligible elk license recipients who haven’t harvested an elk by Nov. 9, in designated areas.

Elk, Special Conservation Tag (Antlered or Antlerless): Sept. 2 –Nov. 9. One elk tag for one antlered or antlerless elk that was auctioned at the annual Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Banquet.

DEER, ARCHERY (Antlerless Only) WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D: Sept. 21 –Oct. 4, and Nov. 18 –30. One antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER, ARCHERY (Antlered and Antlerless) WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D: Jan. 13 –25. One antlered deer per hunting license year. One antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER, ARCHERY (Antlered and Antlerless) Statewide: Oct. 5 –Nov. 16 and Dec. 26 –Jan. 11. One antlered deer per hunting license year. One antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER (Antlered and Antlerless) WMUs 1A, 1B, 2B, 3A, 3D, 4A, 4C, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D: Dec. 2 –14. One antlered deer per hunting license year. An antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER Antlered Only) WMUs 2A, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4D and 4E: Dec. 2 –6. One antlered deer per hunting license year. (Holders of valid DMAP antlerless deer permits may harvest antlerless deer on DMAP properties during this period.)

DEER (Antlered and Antlerless) WMUs 2A, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4D and 4E: Dec. 7 –14. One antlered deer per hunting license year. An antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER, ANTLERLESS (Statewide): Oct. 24 –26. Junior and Senior License Holders, Disabled Person Permit (to use a vehicle) Holders, and Pennsylvania residents serving on active duty in

U.S. Armed Services or in the U.S. Coast Guard only, with required antlerless license.

DEER, ANTLERLESS MUZZLELOADER (Statewide): Oct. 19 –26. One antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER, ANTLERED OR ANTLERLESS FLINTLOCK (Statewide): Dec. 26 –Jan. 11. One antlered deer per hunting license year, or one antlerless deer and an additional antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER, ANTLERED OR ANTLERLESS FLINTLOCK (WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D): Dec. 26 –Jan. 25. One antlered deer per hunting license year, or one antlerless deer and an additional antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

DEER, ANTLERLESS EXTENDED REGULAR FIREARMS: (Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties): Dec. 26 –Jan. 25. One antlerless deer with each required antlerless license.

FURBEARER HUNTING SEASONS

COYOTES: No closed season. Unlimited. Outside of any big game season (deer, bear, elk and turkey), coyotes may be taken with a hunting license or a furtaker license, and without wearing orange. During any big game season, coyotes may be taken while lawfully hunting big game or with a furtakers license.

RACCOON and FOXES: Oct. 26–Feb. 22, unlimited.

OPOSSUM, SKUNKS and WEASELS: No closed season, except Sundays. No limits.

BOBCAT (WMUs 2A, 2C, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4C, 4D and 4E): Jan. 21 –Feb. 11. One bobcat per license year, but all licensed furtakers may obtain one permit.

TRAPPING SEASONS

MINK and MUSKRAT: Nov. 23–Jan. 5. Unlimited.

COYOTE, FOXES, OPOSSUM, RACCOON, SKUNKS and WEASELS: Oct. 27–Feb. 23. No limit.

COYOTE and FOXES (Statewide) Cable Restraints: Dec. 26 –Feb. 23. No limit. Participants must pass cable restraint certification course.

BEAVER (Statewide): Dec. 26–Mar . 31 (Limits vary depending on WMU).

BOBCAT (WMUs 2A, 2C, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4C, 4D and 4E): Dec. 21 –Jan. 12. One bobcat per license year, and all licensed furtakers may obtain one permit.

FISHER (WMUs 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3A, 3D, 4D and 4E): Dec. 21 –26. One fisher per license year, and all licensed furtakers may obtain one permit.

FALCONRY

Squirrels (Statewide): Sept. 1–Mar. 31. (6 daily, field possession limit of 12)

Quail (Statewide): Sept. 1–Mar. 31. (4 daily, field possession limit of 8).

Ruffed Grouse (Statewide): Sept. 1–Mar. 31. (2 daily, field possession limit of 4).

Cottontail Rabbits (Statewide): Sept. 1–Mar. 31. (4 daily, field possession limit of 8).

Snowshoe or Varying Hare (Statewide): Sept. 1–Mar. 31. (1 daily, field possession limit of 2).

Ring–necked Pheasant –Male and Female (Statewide): Sept.1 –Mar. 31. (2 daily, field possession limit of 4).

Migratory Game Birds (Statewide): Seasons and bag limits shall be in accordance with Federal regulations.
The former WMU 2G will split into two WMUs beginning with the 2013-14 season. A boundary description for the new WMU, 2H, follows:
2H: From Lantz Corners, US Rt. 6 east to Coudersport. South on Rt. 872 to Austin. Northwest on Rt. 607 to Keating Summit, and then south on Rt. 155 to Rt. 120. Follow Rt. 120 south to Driftwood, and then west on Rt. 555 to Rt. 255 in Weedville. South on Rt. 255 to I-80. West on I-80 to US Rt. 219 near DuBois. North US Rt. 219 to Rt. 6 at Lantz Corners.

If you’d like more information about placing your advertisement in Pennsylvania Magazine, download this file:

rate card 2020

Contact: Matt Holliday, 717-697-4660

The Pennsylvania Game Commission issued this press release today. In case you don’t know, feeding elk in Pennsylvania is not only illegal, it is dangerous to the elk themselves. A veterinarian will discuss the hazards at a public event in February.

Release #001-12
Jan. 9, 2012

GAME COMMISSION WILDLIFE VETERINARIAN TO DISCUSS HAZARDS OF ILLEGAL ELK FEEDING

HARRISBURG – Dr. Walter Cottrell, Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife veterinarian, will discuss the harmful effects of winter feeding of elk at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Elk Country Visitor’s Center at 134 Homestead Dr., in Benezette Township, Elk County.

“While feeding elk is illegal any time of the year, as it causes problems by habituating elk to find food around homes and can be dangerous to those who attempt to feed elk by hand, those who violate this law during the winter also put the elk at risk,” Cottrell said. “In 2009, there were four cases involving elk that died of rumen acidosis, which is directly related to artificial feeding.

“There were other deaths that we believed were caused by such feeding, but, in those cases the animal was either decomposed or other circumstances prevented us from obtaining the carcass in time for laboratory analysis to take place.”

As part of his 30-minute presentation, Dr. Cottrell will outline how elk, as well as white-tailed deer, adapt to a winter diet of primarily woody vegetation and can die of acidosis caused by a build up of lactic acid in the rumen, which is the chamber of its four-part stomach responsible for fermentation of food. If elk or deer consume too much highly-fermentable grain, such as corn – which is the most common artificial feed put out during winter – the pH level falls quickly and a shock-like syndrome can occur.

The Game Commission developed a new display, which has been posted at the Elk Country Visitor’s Center to educate the public about the fact that feeding elk is illegal and explain the effects that feeding has on habituating elk.

Dr. Cottrell also noted that artificial feeding can and has had fatal results for elk, and Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officers have cited residents in the elk range for the illegal feeding of elk. In one case, an elk was found lying dead on a pile of corn, and the resident dragged it into the woods in an attempt to conceal the situation.

“This presentation is geared to help local residents understand that the well-intentioned individuals who are illegally feeding the elk are actually creating a situation in which they may be killing the elk,” Dr. Cottrell said. “For those who truly enjoy seeing elk it is best for them to stop artificially feeding elk and other wildlife. It would be far more beneficial if they were to implement some form of habitat improvement producing cover to reduce weather-related stress or food in the form of digestible native plants on their property.”

For more information on the problems associated with feeding deer and elk, please visit the Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us), put your cursor on “Self-Help” in the menu bar at the top of the homepage and click on “Living with White-Tails,” and then click on “Please, Don’t Feed the Deer” in the “Related Information” section.

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