New wild game area in Franklin County in jeopardy [Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pa.]

<p><chron>Oct. 08</chron>--A wild pheasant area for <location value="LU/us.pa.fralin" idsrc="xmltag.org">Franklin County</location> may be shot down before it gets off the ground.</p><p>The local chapter of Pheasants Forever and the <org>Pennsylvania Game Commission</org> are working together to establish the state's fifth Wild Pheasant Recovery Area in <location value="LU/us.pa.fralin" idsrc="xmltag.org">Franklin County</location>.</p><p>The hope is ring-necked pheasants will re-establish a wild population on 10,000 acres by 2020 when they would be fair game.</p><p><org>The Cumberland Valley Chapter of Pheasants Forever</org> asked the <org>Game Commission</org> for more support during a <org>Senate</org> hearing on Friday.</p><p>"I have more pheasant biologists then deer biologists. (Pheasants are) a non-native species," <org>Game Commission</org> Executive Director <person>Carl G. Roe</person> said. "Every species has an advocate. Our challenge is to balance that. We're spending more on pheasants than any other species we have."</p><p>The state <org>Senate Game and Fisheries Committee</org> held a hearing in the <location>Whitetail Ski Resort</location> lodge.</p><p>Committee chair Sen. <person>Richard Alloway III</person>, R-<location value="LU/us.pa.chaurg" idsrc="xmltag.org">Chambersburg</location>, and Sen. <person>John Eichelberger</person>, R-<location value="LU/us.pa.holurg" idsrc="xmltag.org">Hollidaysburg</location>, ran the meeting.</p><p><person>Brian Brake</person>, habitat chairman for the local Pheasants Forever chapter, asked that the <org>Game Commission</org> put a higher priority on the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, a federal program that pays farmers to set aside environmentally sensitive land for 10 to 15 years. The land becomes suitable habitat for pheasants and other game. The county's pheasant recovery area lost 500 acres this year when 15 farmers declined to enroll in CREP again</p><p>and two more were ruled ineligible.</p><p>"We lost every contract we had this year," Brake said. He is not sure why farmers did not enroll again, but contact from a <org>Game Commission</org> biologist may have saved some.</p><p>"One and a half years ago, the people should have been contacted," Brake said.</p><p>In promoting CREP a decade ago, the <org>Game Commission</org> spent <money>$1</money> for every <money>$20</money> the state got in CREP money, Brake said. He called for a return to that investment.</p><p>Fewer than 50 percent of farmers this year are expected to re-enroll in CREP in the <location>Chesapeake Bay</location> watershed, mainly because of record high corn and soybean prices, Roe said. The program worked in 2001 when commodity prices were about one-third of what they are today -- <money>$82</money> a ton for corn, <money>$500</money> a ton for soybeans and <money>$325</money> a ton for wheat.</p><p>"At these prices farmers can get a yield off their worst land and make it economically feasible to do so," Roe said. "We will continue to work CREP within the resources we have available, but it is difficult to compete against the current market values."</p><p>Pheasants Forever members also asked the <org>Game Commission</org> to contact farmers about the delayed mowing program. Farmers are paid up to <money>$125</money> an acre to postpone cutting grass fields until after nesting season.</p><p><person>Ed Brake</person> of <location value="LU/us.pa.pethip" idsrc="xmltag.org">Peters Township</location> said he set aside a field in grass and no one has contacted him about the program. He is preparing his fields for next year.</p><p>The local chapter had held meetings with landowners to explain the incentives they could get for making pheasant habitat.</p><p>"It's a kind of hurrying-up-to-nothing kind of situation," member <person>Mike Bayer</person> said.</p&gt;<p>Roe cautioned that delayed mowing program is a year-to-year program while CREP is long term.</p><p>"Any of these programs are vital to our success in establishing a WPRA in <location value="LU/us.pa.fralin" idsrc="xmltag.org">Franklin County</location>," member and retired forester <person>Lionel Lemery</person> said. "As few tools as we have we need to go on with those that are possible as soon as possible."</p><p><person>Shon Robbins</person>, Northeast regional biologist for Pheasants Forever, said the organization will be hiring three biologists for <location value="LS/us.pa" idsrc="xmltag.org">Pennsylvania</location> with one assigned to the <location value="LU/us.pa.fralin" idsrc="xmltag.org">Franklin County</location> area. The biologist will contact landowners about incentive programs.</p><p><org>The Game Commission</org> has four pheasant biologists, down from the initial 10 who initiated the state's WPRA in 2001, according to Roe. He asked why the <org>Game Commission</org> should invest more in pheasant habitat in <location value="LU/us.pa.fralin" idsrc="xmltag.org">Franklin County</location> when the area still does not have enough cover for secure nesting.</p><p>"We're in the middle of an experiment," he said.</p><p>The state's oldest WPRA is expected to be at its reproductive goal this year.</p><p>A "habitat stamp" for quail and pheasant hunters is not politically feasible, Roe said. Hunters would not pay for something they now get for free, and the pheasant habitat program as a pay-as-you-go program would see its current funding cut in half.</p><p><person>Brian Brake</person> suggested that the <org>Game Commission</org> invest in habitat rather than an annual pheasant stocking program.</p><p><org>The Game Commission</org> budget remains tight. Proceeds from Marcellus shale leases are making up for declining revenue from timber sales, Roe said.</p><p>The future of the CREP is also in the hands of federal legislators facing a tight budget.</p><p>"This CREP program is something out of our control," Eichelberger said. "If it's everything we're banking on, we're out of business."</p><p><person>Brian Brake</person> said, "It is the only way to insure what we have accomplished to date will not be lost tomorrow."</p><p>"There are things we can do, and things we can't do," Alloway said. "It always comes back to resources; it comes back to money. I think this (hearing) helped air some things."</p><p>------</p><p><person>Jim Hook</person> can be reached at 262-4759 and <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</p><p class="shirttail">___</p><p class="shirttail">(c)2011 the Public Opinion (Chambersburg, Pa.)</p><p class="shirttail">Visit the Public Opinion (Chambersburg, Pa.) at www.publicopiniononline.com</p><p class="shirttail">Distributed by MCT Information Services</p>