HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners met today at the Game Commission’s Harrisburg headquarters to hear public comment and conduct official business that included the final adoption of 2026-27 hunting seasons and bag limits, which are provided in a separate news release. Other highlights from today’s meeting follow.
CERTIFIED HUNTER PROGRAM TO EXPAND
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners voted today to adopt regulations that will guide the agency’s Certified Hunter Program, which connects hunters and landowners as a means of addressing crop-damage concerns.
The Certified Hunter Program launched last year in the Southwest Region and is expected to expand statewide.
For hunters, the program provides an opportunity to access productive hunting grounds and harvest antlerless deer to help landowners meet deer-management goals on their properties. Participating landowners retain full control of their properties and enjoy peace of mind knowing the hunters there have met the program’s qualifications.
The regulations adopted by the Board establish eligibility for participants and other program parameters.
Certified Hunters will need to have held a hunting license in at least four of the past five years and pass a specialized course before being accepted into the program. Annual background checks will be required, and any applicant convicted of recent Game and Wildlife Code violations or other crimes will be ineligible for a permit. Certified Hunters also will be required to report their deer harvests electronically within 24 hours, unless out of service.
More information about the program is available on the Certified Hunter Program page at www.pa.gov/pgc.
ELK APPLICATION TO BECOME SIMPLER
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today adopted changes that will provide for a simplified elk license application structure, which will consolidate any bonus points hunters have accumulated since 2003.
Pennsylvania elk licenses are awarded through a random drawing of applicants. A hunter can submit an application, and if not drawn for a license, will receive a bonus point. Then, the next time the hunter submits an application, they not only have one chance to draw a license, but an additional chance for each bonus point they’ve received.
Under the new application process, hunters will retain the bonus points they’ve collected over the years. Hunters will submit only one application per year, instead of one application for every elk season in which they want to participate, so all bonus points will be consolidated. Applicants will then select up to five options covering the elk season and hunt zone for which they’re seeking a license, and whether they want to hunt antlered or antlerless elk.
If an applicant is drawn for a license, their bonus points automatically will reset to zero. A previously adopted regulation that will be in effect for the first time in the coming license year also will ensure that applicants who are drawn for antlered elk licenses are never again eligible for an antlered elk license.
License applications for the 2026-27 elk seasons will go on sale May 1. The application period is set to close at 11:59 p.m. on July 12. The Elk Hunt Zones will be reconfigured and renamed, as reflected in a measure the Board preliminarily approved today, so hunters might need to familiarize themselves with these changes prior to applying. The adjusted zones have more-readily identifiable boundaries, better encapsulate subpopulations of elk and, on average, have an increased proportion of public land.
CWD REGS AMENDED
The Game Commission today adopted changes to regulations regarding Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), adjustments made to better protect the state’s white-tailed deer and simultaneously help hunters.
Hunters no longer will be prohibited from transporting harvested deer – including high-risk deer parts – between any two locations. But hunters statewide would be required to dispose of high-risk deer parts through their commercial trash pickup, and expressly prohibited from disposing of high-risk parts on the landscape after a deer is moved from the harvest site.
Other changes include eliminating the regulatory prohibition on the use of cervid urine-based attractants in any outdoor setting – state law already was changed to make these attractants legal – and providing the Game Commission’s Executive Director with the discretionary authority to establish targeted restrictions on feeding deer and other wild cervids in relation to CWD.
The Game Commission’s goal in managing CWD always has been to mitigate risks related to the disease across the Commonwealth. The agency determined that eliminating restrictions on moving high-risk deer parts or requiring the use of cooperating processors and taxidermists when parts are moved would not impact that, so long as any and all high-risk parts are disposed of properly.
That’s the real key, making sure that all high-risk parts – from deer harvested everywhere in Pennsylvania – are disposed of the right way.
The new regulations are preventative in nature. If high-risk deer parts are disposed of in the trash stream, it eliminates the possibility they will introduce CWD to a new area, and otherwise limits the disease’s spread.
These changes will become final upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which usually takes about six weeks.
FIREARMS OK’D FOR SEASONWIDE AG CONTROL USE
The Agricultural Deer Control Program, commonly referred to as Ag Tag, not so long ago only allowed hunting during periods when other deer seasons were closed. As crop-damage complaints escalated, however, the program was adjusted to allow hunters with Ag Tag permits to hunt and harvest antlerless deer during all established deer seasons where they hunt, better serving the program’s purpose.
During overlaps with other deer seasons, though, Ag Tag hunters previously were limited to using the sporting arms approved for those seasons. When only archery season was open, for instance, an Ag Tag hunter needed to use lawful archery gear. That now has changed.
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today gave final approval to allowing Ag Tag hunters to use any devices authorized for hunting deer in the regular firearms deer season. That said, landowners would maintain authority to restrict the use of any devices and methods on their own lands.
The Agricultural Deer Control Program enables landowners to enlist the aid of hunters in removing deer from agricultural lands. Only antlerless deer may be taken with Ag Tags.
More information on the program can be found on the Game Commission’s website.
SOUTHEAST BAITING REQUIREMENTS TO CHANGE
In the Southeast Special Regulations Area, where it’s legal for deer hunters to use bait on private land, the Game Commission has adopted changes intended to make hunters more effective in harvesting deer, while simultaneously simplifying the rules.
Previously, deer hunters in the Southeast Special Regulations Area – which takes in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, as well as Tyler and Ridley Creek state parks and other publicly owned lands – were able to use bait on private or municipal property. The bait used had to be limited to shelled corn or protein pellet supplements distributed through an approved feeder, with no two bait sites closer than 250 yards apart.
The amended regulations, adopted today by the Board of Commissioners, eliminate the minimum distance between bait sites, allow bait to be distributed via feeder or just placed on the ground, and expand the list of allowable bait to include apples and natural agricultural products intended for human or livestock consumption, excluding mineral blocks and mineral supplements.
The Board also adopted regulations to include federal lands among those where baiting is permitted in the Southeast Special Regulations Area.
Along with those changes, hunters will have to display a tag or label including the full name and address of the landowner, or an individual authorized by the landowner to administer bait at that location, in the immediate vicinity of the bait site.
Limits on bait accumulation at any one site remain unchanged at no more than 5 gallons.
ADJUSTED GAME LANDS REGULATIONS ADOPTED
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today adopted two changes that will affect some non-hunting users of state game lands.
Non-hunters long have been allowed to ride non-motorized vehicles, conveyances and animals as authorized on game lands at certain times of year. That will continue, and the span within which these activities are prohibited is roughly the same – from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, and from April 20 through May 31.
The biggest difference is these closed-activity periods that mirror peak periods for hunting now include Sundays, as well.
Previously, non-hunting riding on game lands could occur on Sundays within the otherwise-closed periods, though the former regulation predated Sunday hunting becoming law in Pennsylvania.
The second change involves a similar span of dates within which non-hunting game lands users must wear either a fluorescent orange hat or 250 square inches of fluorescent orange on the head, chest and back combined, visible from 360 degrees. That span also is from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, and April 20 through May 31, promoting improved safety as well as consistency.
Along with hunters and trappers who are actively engaged in lawful hunting and trapping and might not need orange, anglers who are lawfully fishing also are exempted from orange requirements during these spans.
NEW OPTIONS FOR TRAPPERS APPROVED
Pennsylvania trappers will have some new options in targeting specific furbearers, based on a measure adopted today by the Board of Game Commissioners.
The Board voted to increase the maximum size for body-gripping traps used for beavers and river otters to 14 inches in width or height, whichever is greater, from one jaw to the opposing jaw when set.
Previously, body-gripping traps used for beavers or river otters could be no larger than 10 inches high and 12 inches wide, which ruled out the use of round traps that now are readily available. The Game Commission determined the amended dimensions better reflect the range of trap sizes and designs appropriate for beaver and otter trapping in Pennsylvania.
The Board also voted to adopt the use of snap traps, within an enclosure, outside a water course, for weasel trapping. Snaps traps, which often are called “rat traps,” have been tested and approved by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Best Management Practices to target weasels, and are legal to use in several states.
Both of these measures will take effect when they are published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which usually takes about six weeks.
SUNDAYS TO OPEN ON REGULATED HUNTING GROUNDS
With the former prohibition on Sunday hunting now removed from Pennsylvania law, Sundays can be included within hunting seasons.
But on regulated hunting grounds, privately owned hunting properties that follow separate regulations, Sunday hunting remained prohibited in commercial areas. That will change.
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today voted to lift the Sunday hunting prohibition that applies to commercial regulated hunting grounds, a measure that will take effect when it is published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which usually takes about six weeks.
This change was requested by the Pennsylvania Game Breeders Association. The Game Commission, in its review, did not identify any significant justification to maintain the prohibition.
ACREAGE TO BE ADDED TO GAME LANDS
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today approved five land deals – one right-of-way purchase, one new land acquisition, one land exchange, and two oil, gas and minerals agreements – that would potentially add 182 surface acres to state game lands.
The right-of-way purchase involves giving $5,000 from the Game Fund for roughly 18 acres on State Game Lands 332 in Young and Blacklick Townships, Indiana County. This right-of-way will provide administrative and lawful user access to the existing game lands.
The land purchase is roughly 117.8 acres in Wayne Township, Schuylkill County, an indenture to State Game Lands 110. This parcel is located along the Kittatinny Ridge, an important bird area, and is also part of the Blue Mountain Natural Heritage Area. Access is through existing State Game Lands 110.
Allan Myers is offering roughly 49 acres in West Keating Township, Clinton County, adjoining State Game Lands 321, to the Game Commission in exchange for roughly 49 acres of State Game Lands 321. In addition to the land exchange, Myers has included the acquisition of a private road for $26,000 lump sum to be paid from the Game Fund. This road access from New Garden Road is vital for administrative and lawful users of State Game Land 321.
Additionally, the Game Commissioners approved an amendment to a September 2024 agreement with RES Coal LLC, of Armagh. The Game Commission owns the land surface, but does not own the coal rights. The amendment would increase surface mining and support acres by approximately 81.7 acres on a portion of State Game Lands 198, located in Cresson Township, Cambria County and Juniata Township, Blair County. The increased minable area (roughly 55.7 acres) includes a spoil area and an existing electric line right-of-way corridor. The request also includes approximately 26 additional support acres for mining activities. This additional acreage brings the total agreed upon area to roughly 207.7 acres. The amendment will bring an additional $1,049,219 to the Game Commission to be used on the future purchase of wildlife habitats, lands, or other uses incidental to hunting, furtaking, and wildlife resource management.
Finally, the Game Commissioners approved a land exchange and water use agreement on State Game Lands 111 in Lower Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset County. Confluence Municipal Borough Water Authority of Confluence, Pennsylvania has requested to complete drilling and establish appropriate right-of-way agreements in order to commence operation of four water wells on State Game Lands 111 to supply approximately 700 residents of Confluence Borough with safe drinking water. In exchange for operating up to four water wellheads, associated wellhead protection zones, and electric and waterline infrastructure covering roughly 7.5 acres for a 25-year period, CMBWA agrees to convey to the Game Commission roughly 46.4 acres of land. After the 25-year term, the Game Commission can assess an annual water production royalty payment of up to 2% of gross receipts with those future royalty payments deposited into the Game Fund. The agreement shall automatically renew after the initial 25-year term if the wells continue to produce and the annual royalty rate for water production set by Game Commission is accepted by CMBWA.
Hunters and other users of the game lands system should be aware that none of these additions are yet final. Some are contingent upon third parties receiving funding through grants or other means. What’s more, the Board of Commissioners’ approval of the agreements is but one step in the land transfer process.
When that process is completed, and the properties are officially game lands, the Game Commission will post signs to that effect, stating that they’re now available for public use.
NEXT MEETING SCHEDULED
The next meeting of the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners is scheduled to be held Friday, July 10.