A24-Lancastar Firming, Saturday, Hay 16,1992
PFA Pushes For Deer Permits
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.) Citing intolerable deer
damage and insufficient action by
the Game Commission, the Penn
sylvania Farmers’ Association
(PFA) is seeking help from the
General Assembly.
In testimony Thursday before
the House Republican Policy
Committee Task Force on Deer
Damage, PFA spokesman Leo
nard Crooke called for legislation
to let farmers bring in hunters dur
ing the growing season to help eli
minate deer causing crop damage.
Crooke, a Bucks County dairy
man and a member of PFA’s
Wildlife Damage Control Com
mittee, spoke at a field hearing of
the task force in Stockertown,
Northampton County.
PFA supports a “deer damage
permit plan” that would allow far
mers with crop damage to bring in
one hunter for every 25 acres of
farmland to harvest deer causing
damage from August 1 until deer
season begins.
While there are no recent stu
dies of deer damage to farm crops,
Crooke said, “The most recent sta-
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tistical information dates back to
1961 when a Pennsylvania State
University study indicated the
annual economic impact due to
deer damage in Pennsylvania was
somewhere between $l6 million
and $3O million. Since that time,
estimates of damage have been
much higher.”
Surveys conducted by PFA in
1988 and 1990, “indicate that 38
percent of Pennsylvnaia farms
have intolerable levels of dam
age,” Crooke said. A separate
survey indicated the damage rate
on affected farms averaged $4,000
per farm, Crooke added.
Over the years, PFA has asked
the Game Commission to take
steps to reduce the size of the deer
herd and develop new programs to
help individual farmers with
severe problems.
“Attempts by the Game Com
mission to reduce the size of the
deer herd have only this year
begun to show some sign of suc
cess,” Crooke testified. “Commis
sion statistics, however, still show
that most counties are over the
recommended population level.
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Statewide, the anterless deer
population still remains at more
than 100,000 over the recom
mended level.”
Furthermore, PFA said. Game
Commission attempts to imple
ment programs to aid individual
farmers have also been
unsuccessful.
“The general response by the
Game Commission has been to
indicate that the current law which
allows farmers to destroy deer for
crop damage is sufficient,”
Crooke said. “The Pennsylvania
Farmers’ Association disagrees
with this, due to both the amount
of time required, and the public
pressure which is placed on far
mers attempting to comply with
the law.”
A farm workload, which can
include 18 hours of physical labor,
“is especially great during times
when deer are doing the most
damage,” Crooke said, “We can
not take time away from the few
hours of sleep we do get to be
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and is heading for college next
fall.
Asked what will happen to the
240 year-old-farm if none of the
children want to work the land and
operate the dairy, Jim simply
shrugs his shoulders to indicate
that he doesn’t know. Yet, he isn’t
given to worrying about the
harvesting and field dressing deer.
In addition, many farmers who
attempt to do this are physically
threatened by those around them
who do not understand the impact
of the problem.”
In 1990, PFA recommended a
permit-hunting program to allow
designated hunters to help farmers
harvest deer for crop damage.
“However, the Game Commission
was adamantly opposed to this
plan,” Crooke said, “and an agree
ment was reached which led to the
hotspot program.”
The hotspot program allows
hunters to take anterless deer on
farms which suffered severe crop
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What troubles Jim is die diffi
culty farmers meet when seeking
good hired help. “It’s almost
impossible to find good farm
help,” he said. “I just wish we
could pay the going rate of pay
like the steel mills and other big
businesses. Farming is big busi
ness, but we ought to be able to
make an equal wage.”
Brewer says that Wilczak and
Flaga, who were traveling sepa
rately. were selected to tour Penn
sylvania because of its similarity
to their home area. Also consid
ered prior to their coming here
was the need for greater know
ledge for Polish farmers and
improving the sales market for
them.
He said, too, that following the
visit he and Moore made to Poland
last year. Jay and Betty Irwin of
Lancaster County and George
Greaser of Blair County spent six
months in Poland acquiring
needed information about the agri
culture practices there.