PETITION

 

To Pass House Bill 1483 and Return Abundant Wildlife to Pennsylvania

 

 

Today, closed tree-tops in Pennsylvania’s old and aging forests are blocking sunlight from reaching the forest floor -- preventing the regeneration of plant-life as food and cover for wildlife.  As a result, many wildlife populations are rapidly declining. 

 

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has failed to address this serious problem, and, instead, mistakenly blamed white-tailed deer (our State Mammal) for deteriorating habitat. Over a 5-year period, the Game Commission directed the slaughter of 2,500,000 deer – mostly pregnant does and fawns.

 

In so doing, they turned a problem into a crisis.  Not only have they collapsed the deer herd in many regions of the state, but they still fail to address aging forests, deteriorating habitat, and declining wildlife populations.  Legislative studies have determined that these failed policies have cost thousands of family businesses, rural communities, and the Commonwealth’s economy over $7 billion, which is increasing at the rate of $1.16 billion each year.  The state is also losing $92.5 million in annual tax revenue.

 

To resolve the crisis, the Pennsylvania Legislature, sportsmen and conservation organizations, independent scientists, and concerned citizens have joined in creating House Bill 1483.  HB 1483 is designed to correct Game Commission policies, to create critically needed early successional wildlife habitat over the 6,000-square-mile system of Pennsylvania’s public forestlands, and return abundant wildlife to Penn’s Woods.

 

 From deer, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys, snowshoe hares, and our magnificent elk herd, to songbirds, bats, and at-risk pollinators such as honeybees and Monarch butterflies, Pennsylvania wildlife will again flourish and our forests will return to their former reputation as one-of-the-world’s healthiest and most productive hardwood forest ecosystems.

 

Over about a two-month period in the Fall of 2017, Pennsylvanian's from all walks of life were asked to visit this website and to sign an associated ipetition.  The petition represented all wildlife-loving citizens -- from sportsmen and camp owners to hikers, mountain bikers, birdwatchers, and photographers -- who wish for a healthy forest ecosystem and abundant wildlife.  It was a brief and limited sampling of people who dislike PGC's deer and wildlife management programs and who endorse resolution by endorsing HB 1483.

​

During this brief period, 1501 people signed the ipetition.  Also as a sampling of support for HB 1483, during this brief period blank hard-copy petiton sheets were placed in a limited number of businesses in Snyder and Union Counties with an additional 842 signatures.  Three large organizations met with their members, and subsequently signed the petition with 9,650 group-endorsement signatures.

 

Therefore, the petition resulted in 11,993 signatures of people who endorse passage of HB 1483.  This brief and limited survey indicates that there are likely hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania citizens who wish for immediate change to PGC's damaging wildlife management policies, and who endorse passage of HB 1483.

​

You are encouraged to click on the following button and read for yourself the hundreds of comments left by signees which severely criticize the Pennsylvania Game Commission and endorse HB 1483.  Please refer to the previous menu item (Endorsements) for a summary of over 600,000 who endorse HB 1483.  Adding spouses, family members, and friends and associates to those 600,000 would likely represent well over a million of the Commonwealth's 12.8 million citizens who support passage of HB 1483.