HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today announced that hunters started the 2009 black bear season by taking a preliminary harvest of 1,897 black bears in 50 counties on the first day of the three-day statewide bear season.

Scouting Matters: Pre-season and in-season scouting are critically important to any trapline. Furbearer activity centers sometimes shift, based on the availability of food and den sites. Scouting helps a trapper determine where it’s best to put traps. After all, traps set in areas where targeted furbearers aren’t available will only waste your time and fuel. Be efficient. Don’t guess. In the process, you’ll squeeze plenty of excitement into your morning trap-checks and become a better trapper.

Each year, Pennsylvania Game Commission field officers and foresters develop game and furbearer forecasts for the areas they work to share with interested hunters and trappers. Observations on local furbearer populations are always a part of this annual offering. The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s “Field Officer Forecasts” can be found centered on the homepage of the agency’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us). Developed to share field officer perspectives and observations on game and furbearer trends in their respective districts and to help hunters and trappers get closer to the action afield, this information helped many sportsmen and sportswomen have more enjoyable days afield last year.

HARRISBURG – Many of the state’s furbearer trapping and hunting seasons are underway and, based on comments from Pennsylvania Game Commission field officers, hunters and trappers should have a good year. The general trapping season – for coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks and weasels – opened Oct. 25 and runs through Feb. 21. The season for mink and muskrats is Nov. 21 to Jan. 10; beavers, Dec. 26 to March 31.

The omission of a regulation that has been in place for decades in this year’s digest has caused some hunters and trappers to wonder whether they still are required to display their licenses in the middle of the back as has been done for many, many years. Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe answered, “Yes, it still needs to be displayed.”

The Pennsylvania Game Commission counts on hunters to provide information on the deer they harvest. And, to make reporting a deer harvest easier, the Game Commission reminds hunters that they can now file their harvest reports through the agency’s new online system.

Interested in learning more about what’s going on with whitetails in your county? Please consider visiting the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s “Field Officer Forecasts” found on the agency’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us). These reports were developed to share field officer perspectives and observations on game and furbearer trends in their respective districts and to help hunters and trappers get closer to the action afield.

HARRISBURG – The state’s biggest draw for hunters is set to begin the Monday after Thanksgiving, according to Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe, when the two-week firearms deer season opens.

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe today announced that 44 of the 60 licensed elk hunters were successful during the 2009 elk season. Of that total, 20 were antlered elk and 24 were antlerless elk.

A hunter who harvests a bear must complete all information on his or her bear harvest tag and attach it to the ear of the animal immediately after harvest and before the carcass is moved. In addition, within 24 hours, hunters who kill a bear must take it, along with their general hunting and bear licenses, to a Game Commission check station for examination. Bear check stations are maintained at the agency’s six regional offices and at other locations listed on page 36 in the 2009-10 Hunting and Trapping Digest.