Predators on the firing line
Proposal targets red-tailed hawks, great horned owls
Marcus Schneck
Harrisburg Patriot-News
02/23/99
(Copyright 1999)

Telephones and the Internet were buzzing over the weekend as the state's conservation community worked to rally a response to a pheasant recovery proposal being pushed by Game Commission president Vernon Shaffer.

Causing the most controversy is a plan to remove protection from `certain avian predators,` including red-tailed hawks and great horned owls.

It's that last idea that is expected to draw representatives from many conservation organizations to a special meeting Shaffer has called for 4 p.m. Thursday at commission headquarters, 2001 Elmerton Ave., Harrisburg.

Under the plan, the commission would first close State Game Lands 46 at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lebanon and Lancaster counties and SGL 280 at Blue Marsh Lake in Berks County to pheasant hunting and dog training.

Large numbers of pheasants then would be stocked on the study areas. Each SGL would receive 1,000 commission-raised pheasants and 50 wild pheasants trapped in the Midwest and transferred into Pennsylvania.

`You just stand at a booth at sports shows or you go to a meeting at a sportsmen's club, the first thing you'll hear is you've got to get rid of the red-tailed hawks,` said Shaffer, who noted he sees 14-15 redtails sitting on fence posts waiting to pounce on prey such as pheasants and rabbits when he goes goose hunting in the morning.

All hawks and owls are federally protected and the commission cannot lift protection from the birds without a permit from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Few people expect the federal agency will issue such a permit, but many agree with Wendy Looker, a wildlife rehabilitator who said, `I'm greatly concerned that this will leave the impression with the general public that {illegal shooting of hawks and owls} will be tolerated.`

Although she opposes shooting of red-tailed hawks and great horned owls as well, Looker's immediate concern is for other raptor species that might be shot in mistake for the targeted species, possibly including endangered species.

Shaffer said he too does not expect the USFWS to issue the permission he requested in a letter to that agency. The next step, he noted, will be to `go to legislators and a couple senators to put the heat on` the federal agency.

The proposal is `contrary to the mission of the Game Commission` to protect, conserve and manage the diversity of wildlife and their habitats in the state, said Cindy Dunn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Audubon Society.

`Beyond that,` she noted, `it flies in the face of habitat conservation being practiced by groups like Audubon and Pheasants Forever, enhancement of habitat, which is the only real way to enhance pheasant numbers.`

However, Shaffer's proposal probably will attract some support as well. Although Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania had not formulated an official position as of Monday, legislative liaison Charles Bolgiano said, `We are generally supportive of Commissioner Shaffer. If he can get control on hawks and owls in those small, localized areas to see what would happen, I don't see that there would be any objection.`

He noted that the USP urged the commission to include such predator control in previous pheasant recovery programs the agency attempted.

`I call it shoot from the hip wildlife management,` said Bob Thomas, vice president and habitat coordinator of the Pennsylvania State Council of Pheasants Forever. `It took us 30 years to lose the pheasant. We're not going to get them back overnight. We have to get the habitat component back on the ground.`

He continued, `If you have the proper habitat, it nullifies to a great degree the impact of predators.`

Commission wildlife biologists who have conducted several pheasant recovery studies for the agency over the past decade have come to the same conclusion, that Pennsylvania lacks the large blocks of quality habitat needed for a pheasant resurgence.

However, Shaffer said, `The habitat we have today is just as good as when we had pheasants in the '60s and '70s.`

He cited a test he began last fall on a friend's farm in Berks County that was closed to hunting and stocked with 300 Game Commission-raised pheasants. He said a large number of the birds are still there.

Regardless, Thomas expects the proposed effort `will fail. The pheasants won't stay there . . . even if it contained excellent habitat, which I'm not convinced it does.`

The 6,300 acres of SGL 46 and 5,500 acres of SGL 280 are not large enough to hold the birds in place, according to Thomas.

Shaffer said he called the special meeting in an attempt to set the stage for notification of the game lands closure to be published in the 1999-2000 `Digest of Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Regulations,` a copy of which is issued with every hunting license to serve as the sportsman's guide to the Game Law.

If the plan is approved as proposed at the meeting on Thursday, it's possible that the necessary public announcements could take place in time for commissioners to consider it again as final rule-making at their April 8-9 meeting. If it was approved at that point, it could become law in time for inclusion in the digest.

Shaffer's proposal, if passed by the commission, would be the latest in a long line of attempts by the agency to reverse the decline of the pheasant in the state. As recently as the early 1970s, Pennsylvania's wild pheasant population was estimated at more than a million birds. Today, it's a tiny fraction of that.