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Ohiopyle, Keystone Parks Open to Deer Hunters With Permits
By Submitted Report
The Tube City Almanac
June 16, 2017
Posted in: Announcements
(State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources photo)
Ohiopyle and Keystone state parks will allow deer hunters to participate in a program designed to limit the number of white-tailed deer in conservation areas.
Permits go on sale Monday for the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Deer Management Assistance Program, or DMAP, which allows landowners to apply for permits to encourage hunters to harvest antlerless deer.
DMAP tags go on sale June 19, when state hunting licenses also go on sale. Hunters obtain permits directly from license issuing agents or the Game Commission website, www.pgc.state.pa.gov.
Too many deer concentrated in an area can cause damage to forests and crops, according to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
DCNR will this year offer hunters 20,736 permits in 79 units totaling 968,054 acres. In 2016, 18,129 DMAP coupons were offered for 80 units totaling 973,363 acres.
"We find it supportive that the Pennsylvania Game Commission found our original allocation recommendations were based on sound science," said Cindy Adams Dunn, secretary of DCNR, in a prepared statement. "Our biologists, foresters and park managers continue to ascribe to a dynamic, thorough, detailed and scientific process that leads to all DCNR applications for DMAP permits."
DMAP allows landowners to apply for permits to encourage antlerless harvests on their property, enabling DCNR and private landowners to more effectively manage white-tailed deer populations and curtail damage to forests and crops.
Among parks in this part of the state that will be open to deer hunters with DMAP permits are Ohiopyle in Fayette County; Keystone in Westmoreland County; Ryerson Station in Greene County; and Raccoon Creek in Beaver County.
Others are Bald Eagle, Beltzville, Blue Knob, Canoe Creek, Codorus, Cook Forest, Gifford Pinchot, Hickory Run, Kings Gap, Nescopeck, Prince Gallitzin, Presque Isle, Ricketts Glen, Shawnee and Tobyhanna.
"These numbers continue to reflect what our foresters and park managers see on the state lands they know so well," Dunn said. "This year the Bureau of Forestry added four DMAP units -- two in Susquehannock State Forest and one each in Michaux and Tioga -- while removing five units in the Loyalsock and Tiadaghton state forests."
Requests for DMAP-targeted areas, and the number of permits sought, are science-driven, Dunn said.
Before any DMAP applications are made with the commission, Dunn said the department follows a rigid forest-health survey that include observations by professional foresters to determine the impact on plant life by deer and meetings within the state's 20 forest districts to determine if vegetation has reached a healthy level.
Individual district management plans are reviewed by a group of foresters, biologists and other professionals, and then overseen by a final executive committee, Dunn said.
Applicants for DMAP permits can find DCNR tract locations and maps, availability numbers, past hunter success rates and other information at http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/deer/dmap/index.htm.
Originally published June 16, 2017.
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