Subject: Sunday Hunting

President Boop, Commissioners, Executive Director Roe, Commission staff, my name is Jeff Grove. I am here today on behalf of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau; I thank you for the opportunity to relay to you the views of our membership as they relate to wildlife issues.
Farmers remain concerned about the continued push by some groups and individuals to gain the allowance of Sunday hunting within the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania Farm Bureau has a growing membership now of over 43,000 members. Our policy unequivocally opposing of Sunday hunting has not changed. Members are requesting that their Farm Bureau organization continue to carry the message to you as commissioners and to the legislature; “There be no further expansion of Sunday Hunting.”
Thank you for past support of programs that help address agricultural crop damage from deer and other wildlife. These tools are greatly appreciated and are helping landowners solve deer overabundance problems.
This Tuesday you will be voting on the proposed streamlining of Canada goose depredation permits. We thank you for a unanimous vote at the October meeting in support of this measure and ask that you vote favorably for final adoption.
We are concerned that proposed fee increases to DMAP may become a disincentive for some hunters to “give DMAP a shot” on private lands. We recognize the need for this Commission to recover added costs of administration of programs. We also understand that an administrative cost burden may be associated with the DMAP program where the Commission directly issues DMAP permits to hunters for State parks, forests, and large land holdings that find it attractive to obtain permits through the Commission.
Most of the features of Pennsylvania’s DMAP program were modeled from a similar program in New York. The New York program does differ in some ways from our Pennsylvania program. One difference is that New York does not charge a fee for issuance of DMAP permits.  When Pennsylvania’s DMAP program was in development, the Game Commission saw it necessary to charge the same fee for DMAP permits as doe licenses, so that hunters are not able through DMAP to avoid the assessment of fees they would otherwise pay for the privilege of hunting under a doe license.
While increasing permit fees may not discourage hunters from continuing to seek and obtain DMAP permits on local lands or areas where hundreds of permits are available, increases in fees may significantly discourage hunters from seeking DMAP permits in local areas where much fewer permits may be issued.  Many private landowners still report that they are finding it difficult to attract enough hunters to their properties to solve their deer problems. We ask that you seriously consider the impacts that increasing DMAP permit fees above the normal fee for doe licenses will have hunters’ willingness to participate in DMAP in more remote areas, and the ability of landowners in these remote areas to sufficiently secure the hunters and hunting activities needed to effectively control deer populations.
Most farmers need and want the responsibility of managing who is hunting and when, and where hunting occurs on their farms. They prefer to handle DMAP coupon distribution. A farm is the home as well as the business place of a farmer. To protect themselves from liability and disruption of business activities, they need to have the meaningful ability to oversee and regulate hunting activities on their farms. They face along with liability issues the safety of family, employees, and farm animals. Their livelihood and home are dependent on their ability to effectively oversee what happens on and around their properties.
The Farm Bureau has been reaching out to farmers to encourage them to use DMAP and inform them how DMAP may help them solve their problems with overabundant deer. Our January edition of the “Country Focus” is included with copies of my testimony. Please refer to the article “Have Deer Problems? DMAP May Help” on page 12. 
We hope that you can come to a solution for DMAP that will balance the need for the Commission and managers of very large state land and forestland holdings to receive revenues that offset increased administrative costs with the need for owners of farms and smaller land holdings to sufficiently attract the number of hunters and concentration of hunting activities for effective deer population and damage control.
Thank you.