Pa. House considering bills to expand Sunday hunting

Apr. 9—HARRISBURG — A push continues to end Pennsylvania's restriction on Sunday hunting but as sportsmen find conditional support among farmers, there remains considerable pushback from those who want to preserve that day year-round for different woodsy pursuits.

There are proposals in both the House and Senate to expand Sunday hunting and allow the Pennsylvania Game Commission to regulate and schedule opportunities to hunt on the week's seventh day.

The House proposal is part of a three-bill package that seeks to create an online registry for farmers to recruit hunters for population management of deer and certain predators on private properties and also mandate that at least one member of the Game Commission has a background in agriculture.

The Senate proposal is nearing a vote by the full chamber while the House bills haven't yet left the Game and Fisheries Committee.

Time is running short. The current two-year legislative session ends Nov. 30. Any bills that don't clear both chambers and move into law will expire and must be reintroduced.

Sunday hunting isn't completely banned. Foxes, coyotes and crows can be hunted year-round on Sundays. A 2019 law allows the Game Commission to permit hunting on three Sundays annually. The days have been split evenly for archery and rifle season for deer and rifle season for bear.

Opponents of an expansion argue that a Sunday restriction allows for the safe and peaceful enjoyment of public lands for all — hiking, mountain biking and horse riding oft-cited among outdoor recreational opportunities. With huntsmen in the woods, they argue that the likelihood of a fatal accident is heightened and that the peaceful environment is shattered with each gunshot.

"Noise induces stress. The cacophony of daily life can best be countered by immersion in the outdoors," Brook Lenker, executive director, Keystone Trails Association, said during a meeting Tuesday of the House Game and Fisheries Committee.

"Many people will avoid hiking if hunting activity is imminent," Lenker said.

Supporters say such a prohibition is antiquated and that additional opportunities to hunt broaden access to the tradition while also helping control a booming population of deer that's damaging forests and crops.

"It's not just busy families that are advocating for Sunday hunting. It is also our farmers that are being financially crippled by crop damage. It is our wildlife biologists shouting that we need it for herd management. And, it's our forest ecologists that are seeing our great Pennsylvania woodlands decimated beyond repair by too large of a herd," Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Allegheny, the primary sponsor of the House bills, said.

Estimates for the population of white-tailed deer in Pennsylvania vary, largely falling around 1.5 million over recent years. Game Commission data shows a post-hunt population exceeding 1.3 million in 19 of the 22 wildlife management units that divide the state. Data was unavailable for three of the units.

The 2022-23 deer season resulted in a harvest of nearly 423,000 deer, Game Commission data show.

Bryan Burhans, executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said the commission fully supports expanding Sunday hunting. He said 39 other states have no restrictions on Sunday hunting and that a recent survey returned strong support for an expansion.

Andy Bater of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau said soybeans, sweet corn and Christmas trees are among the crops often damaged in areas with heavy deer populations. He spoke of a farmer who reportedly lost $7,000 for each acre of soy crops damaged by deer.

"This preventable waste in our agricultural system is untenable when record numbers of the commonwealth's residents are food insecure," Bater said.

While the Farm Bureau hasn't supported lifting the Sunday ban in the past, Bater said that position has changed. However, he said support is conditional.

Bater told Rep. Jim Haddock, D-Luzerne/Lackawanna, that the bill package must be all-inclusive to address agricultural concerns. If terms related to crop damage aren't included in a final bill product, he said the Farm Bureau wouldn't support other initiatives including expanding Sunday hunting.