Here in my home area of Eighty Four we have witnessed a tremendous loss of open hunting land over the last 20 years. With that in mind, I can't help but wonder how many hunters will go to their deer stands this year only to find a gas well or drilling operation there. Certainly with the thousands of wells being drilled in Western Pennsylvania, some of them will fall around someone's deer stand. When looking at this situation one must consider that there is a 150-yard safety zone surrounding the drilling operation.
Also, to be considered is the human and vehicle activity that could change game movement. When you look at ponds built to store water, roadways for access and the drill site itself, they do take up quite a bit of land.
On top of that, most drilling is done in rural areas, where most hunting takes place. With all of that in mind, hunters would do well to check their deer stand well before the season.
Another interesting statistic would involve the number of non-resident licenses sold this year. Will there be a significant jump in sales? Remember many of these men working on the drill sites are from Texas, Oklahoma and even Canadian provinces. And they hunt.
• I had a few interesting comments about last week's article on the change in the bear hunting season. Some say they just won't go bear hunting, although I don't believe that. And a few said they like the idea because they only hunt one day anyhow.
But there were a number of other comments as well.
It was said that by opening the season on Saturday, the Pennsylvania Game Commission may sell more bear licenses, even if the end result is less hours in the woods.
That means more money less and hunting hours. That sounds like the Pittsburgh Pirates' philosophy.
Another comment that makes sense is that the commission is setting things up for the introduction of Sunday hunting. I know that many folks have been pushing for Sunday hunting, although every survey done by the Game Commission has been against it.
The only way that a Saturday opener for an animal that usually involves travel makes sense is to legalize hunting on Sunday. I know I won't drive to St. Marys and spend my money for a single day of hunting.
I must admit to finding one positive to the idea of opening bear season on the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving. For quite some time I had to make a decision on whether to hunt bear in Pennsylvania on Monday or to go to nearby West Virginia to hunt deer the same day.
By opening the bear season on Saturday, the Game Commission has split those two openers. Now hunters can do both.
• Speaking of West Virginia and its deer season, I used to hunt there regularly. While doing so, I ran into hunters using semi-automatic firearms - mostly AR's and Ruger mini's in .223.
Based on what I saw, the .223 was not a deer round and required multiple shots to anchor the animal. I can't help but wonder with the popularity of the AR's and AK's how long it will be before the cry goes out to legalize semis for Pennsylvania deer hunting.
If it happens, I hope the powers that be at least impose a cartridge restriction, eliminating varmint rounds from big game hunting.
• If I have learned one thing from the 20-plus years I have been writing this column it is that any mistake will be noticed.
My daughter Kathy reminded me that mosquito is spelled with an o not an i.
Oh well, I can't blame it on a mistake at the paper so I might as well fess up.
One big error I made years ago has followed me for 10 years. The well known, late writer, Roger Latham once told me to never carry on a debate with a reader. Funny, but the same day as my mis-spelling, the paper published the cartoon Pickles where the old gentleman says the word rhythm should be spelled rithum.
So you see, mosquito should be spelled misquito.