After nearly two decades of no license fee increase, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is taking drastic steps to stay afloat.

Many positions have gone unfilled after retirements, a much needed WCO Class has been put on hold and the 2016 Game Land Tours have been cancelled.

PGC Executive Director R. Matthew Hough states that he regrets these type of decisions, but without a fee increase in 17 years, it cannot be helped.

The Game Commission receives its income from the sales of hunting licenses and fur taker licenses with no funding from the state’s general fund.

Many educational and public service programs will not be offered due to shortages of staff and financial resources.

Pennsylvania supports 1.5 million public hunting acres that have been purchased through hunting license sales over the past 100 years.

This makes Pennsylvania one of the largest public hunting systems in the country.

Pennsylvania leads the nation in total license sales, but is in the bottom of the average cost per license fees.

The Hunter-Trapper Education Program has brought in thousands of young novice hunters to the ranks of PA hunters. However, the trend of having women taking up the outdoor pursuits has really taken off in the U.S.

Nearly 1 million women hunters are now actively involved in the sport.

PA is holding nearly 96,000 of those female hunters and with this year’s H-T-E class graduation it will likely hit 100,000 or 10 percent of all women hunters in the entire country.

Retailers have not let this trend go unnoticed with an active recruitment in clothing, equipment and hunting opportunities focused on female hunters. The daughters want to spend time afield with not only dad and grandpa, but with mom and the girls as well.

I recently was talking to some young ladies about the start of school and what they might be doing. I shouldn’t have been surprised when their answer was, “we are getting ready for hunting season!”

Camping, fishing and the shooting sports are regular occurrences for them. It used to be the exception when a female joined the ranks of hunters, now it has become the norm in many circles. There is something unusual when the girls are talking about favorite hunting spots, new boots and their favorite deer rifle.

My neighbor girl, Amber, told me the other day that she and her pap already had her buck picked out. Hey, Amber, don’t pull out your harvest tag yet, a lot can happen in the field, that’s why they call it hunting and not called getting!

I got my results back from the annual elk tag draw in PA and was unsuccessful. I have tried 14 times with no luck. My buddy, Beaver Boy, tells me that it isn’t really preference points that I am accumulating, it’s just an extra chance for my name in the hopper.

Every year I get my hopes up and every year it’s the same old story. I did get a doe license and from what I’ve heard there were a few fellows and ladies that missed out on a tag because in years past they were hanging around to the last minute.

The Game Commission puts out a lot of tags, but putting them out and filling a tag is a bit different.

The Game Commission reminds all hunters to be careful about illegal baiting of game animals. You cannot put out food to attract game animals to your hunting area. All supplemental feeding with corn or apples or mineral blocks is now ended. Food plots and fields that are natural plantings are permitted, and hunting is allowed near these areas.

Don’t forget to ask permission not only to hunt, but to also place a tree stand on private property. Your stands are to be marked with your name or CID number. The PGC also will assign you a number for your tree or ladder stands. I sent for one and it was a fairly easy project to complete.

Fishing has been rough on me this summer. I have one more excursion for jumbo yellow perch on Lake Erie planned. We will go the last day of summer and hope to lure some tasty perch into the cooler.

We will drift fish and hope to get into a school of them.

With a little jigging and some wiggly shiners, that should do the trick. If I wasn’t fishing in the middle of the week I would drag along a few of my fishing buddies, but their mothers think that school is more important.

Until we meet again, sharpen up your hooks and get out the fillet knives!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.