Outdoors notebook: Hunters Sharing the Harvest has big year

Going into the fall hunting seasons, John Plowman had a goal: He wanted the Hunters Sharing the Harvest program to collect 100,000 pounds of venison for donation to food banks statewide.

It didn't quite get there, but it got close.

The program, which relies on donations of deer taken by hunters, provided 96,000 pounds of meat to food banks, soup kitchens and the like, said Plowman, the organization's executive director. About 3,000 hunters donated deer.

The only time the program did better was in 2007, when it hit the 100,000-pound donation mark.

Plowman credited this past year's abundance of donations to financial support from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, corporate sponsors like Consol, foundation donors like the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and individual sportsmen. That allowed hunters donating deer to do so without cost. In years past, they had to pay a $15 processing fee to a butcher shop.

“It was eliminating the deposit that brought people to the butcher shop door,” Plowman said.

He said he hopes that support continues so the program never has to bring the fee back.

Wildfire danger

A recent rash of wildfires has the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources warning anglers, turkey hunters and others to be careful in the woods.

“One act of carelessness could prove disastrous among tinder-dry conditions in some of our forests, where wildfire dangers climb with each day of sun and wind,” acting secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said.

Open fires are forbidden on state forest lands from March 1-May 25, and when the fire danger is listed as high, very high or extreme.

This year, bureau of forestry firefighters have battled more than 30 fires. Fortunately, none have been large; they've scorched 100 acres total.

Almost 10,000 acres of state and private woodlands are burned by wildfires each year, though, with almost 85 percent occurring between March and May.

New virus

Just when you were getting used to worrying about Lyme disease, there's now this:

According to reports, researchers in Connecticut have confirmed the presence of another, potentially deadly, tick-borne virus. Spread by deer ticks, the so-called Powassan virus can cause serious nervous system disruptions, encephalitis and meningitis and, in 10-15 percent of documented cases, death.

Nationally, there have been 50 cases reported in the past decade, though 2013 was a record year. Health officials say the disease bears monitoring.

Deer summit

The National Deer Alliance has announced the main speakers for its first Whitetail Summit, and one of them is linked to Pennsylvania's deer program.

Gary Alt, the biologist who changed deer management in this state 15 years ago to focus on deer-habitat relationships, will speak on the event's third and final day. He'll be preceded by author Steven Rinella and international conservationist Shane Mahoney.

The Summit will be May 6-8 in Louisville, Ky.

Gas and boaters

Might lower gas prices put more boaters on the water this summer? Some hope so.

A new report from the U.S. Energy Department suggests gas prices might drop to their lowest level in almost six years this summer, hitting $2.45 per gallon on average nationwide between now and September.

John Pfeifer, president of Mercury Marine, said he hopes that means “as prices drop, more families take to the water more often and for longer periods of time.”

Bob Frye is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at bfrye@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobfryeoutdoors.

Article by Bob Frye,
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