July seems awfully early to be thinking about applying for antlerless deer licenses, but that is the way it is. This year, the process begins on July 12. The switch to the new electronic license sales system last year has streamlined most parts of the licensing process for everyone involved – the individual license buyer, the issuing agents, and the Game Commission.
But in spite of our giant technological leap into twenty-first century, the antlerless deer license application process remains cumbersome and convoluted, not to mention a major rip off of Pennsylvania hunters. That's because of the useless and antiquated state law that mandates all doe licenses be issued only by county treasurers. That concept was a dumb idea decades ago, and it is patently ridiculous today.
The legislature made county treasurers the sole issuers of doe licenses back in 1952. I'm not old enough to remember why that was perceived as a good idea, other than doe license allocations were designated by individual county. I am old enough to remember how corrupt that system was in certain counties at certain times.
Until the 1980s, doe license allocations were quite small in most counties, with many times more folks applying for a license than there were licenses available. Some friends I know compared getting a doe license in those days to hitting the lottery and just felt fortunate to draw a license once every three or four years. That is unless you happened to know the treasurer. Seems like those guys always had a doe license. Hard to believe something that underhanded would go on in the world of politics. Yeah, right.
That backdoor dealing in doe licenses by some unscrupulous treasurers more or less became a nonissue during the 1980s when the Game Commission dramatically upped the doe license allocations to the point that many counties couldn't sell out of their allocations. That meant that anyone who wanted a doe license merely needed to apply for one.
In 2003, the Game Commission made sweeping changes to wildlife management in Pennsylvania by dividing the entire state into 22 separate Wildlife Management Units (WMUs). These management units were designated by land use and habitat and used natural or easily defined features such as rivers and major highways as the boundaries for them, rather than the arbitrary and irrelevant county lines.
With the change to WMUs, antlerless license allocations were also set by WMU. This would have been a perfect time to eliminate county treasurers from the process. Since then, a fair number of legislators have seen fit to stick their noses into many facets of deer management. I'll be kind and say that while they might have had good intentions about that, most of them seem utter clueless about deer and deer hunting.
If some politician really wants to do the deer hunters of Pennsylvania a huge favor, he or she should draft and pass a bill that gets county treasurers out of the doe license business. Here's why.
This year, the statewide doe license allocation is 815,423. Each of those licenses brings a $1 issuing fee to the county treasurer who issues it. This year's allocation averages out to more than $12,000 per treasurer. I'm not sure where that little financial windfall ends up. For all I know it could fund the Christmas party for the county treasurer's office. But I'll assume it goes into the general county treasury to be spent as the county sees fit.
I don't know about you, but I already pay more than enough taxes to all levels of government. I don't buy a hunting license further to support county government. I buy a hunting license to support hunting, conservation, and wildlife management. If the county is going to keep a portion of our hunting license dollars, then the county should be mandated to spend it on habitat improvement, hunting access, or something along those lines.
But an even more efficient and cost-effective move would be to take the counties out of the process and turn it and the $815,000 of hunters' money over to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who is already in the business of hunting, conservation, and wildlife management. Pretty simple, really.