Since November, the Butler Eagle's letters to the editor column has been a forum for many hunters' disgust over current rifle deer hunting rules, including the combined two-week buck and doe season. Numerous hunters lamented seeing just a few deer in the woods, unlike 10 or 20 years ago, when there seemed to be a much larger deer population.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has so far stood firm in backing the current rules. Meanwhile, many hunters have welcomed the retirement of commission official Gary Alt, who was in charge of managing the commonwealth's deer herd and who was the architect of the rules currently in effect.

Many hunters hope that, with Alt having retired, there is hope for revisions to the regulations currently governing buck and doe hunting. Whether changes are made remains to be seen; no changes were forthcoming at the commission's January meeting.

But it is time for the commission to better acknowledge the increasing level of opposition to the existing deer hunting rules and demonstrate a greater willingness to listen to hunters' concerns than it so far has been willing to do.

It is not in the commission's best interests for hunters to boycott doe licenses, or simply to give up deer hunting, as some Butler Eagle hunter/readers have expressed an intent to do.

It also is not in the commission's best interests for hunters to "declare war" against the commission, as 250 disgruntled hunters did Wednesday evening at the Rembrandt Sportsmen's Club in the Cambria County community of St. Benedict.

At that meeting, Richard Laurent, president of Northcentral and Central PA Deer Hunters, urged hunters to buy antlerless deer licenses this year and then burn them, if their pleas are ignored by state officials.

Laurent was quoted in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat as saying, "Never in the state of Pennsylvania have hunters had an uprising like this. We're at war with the Game Commission and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. We can win this."

Laurent was reported as asking hunters to send letters and e-mails and make telephone calls to commission officials prior to the commission's meeting in April, at which it reportedly will be discussing and, presumably, making a decision about deer hunting rules for this fall's hunt.

He said hunters should not simply refuse to buy licenses.

"If Pennsylvania people don't buy a license, people from West Virginia and other states will come up and buy them," he said. "There are deer hunters and deer killers, and the deer killers are going to get them."

Laurent said he has been contacted by hunters from across the state who have told him there are no deer in the woods. Eagle letters to the editor over the past several months corroborate Laurent's comments on Wednesday that when the state had a two-week rifle buck season without the current antler restrictions, followed by a three-day antlerless deer season, a larger deer population existed.

When Bill Stein of Franklin Township wrote to the Eagle in December, he said the commission "needs to make changes immediately . . . our money supports this sport, but commission officials refuse to listen to our concerns."

Said Richard Urban Jr. of Oakland Township in a letter to the Eagle published Jan. 9: "In my 30-plus years of hunting deer in this state, this has been the worst year I have ever experienced for seeing deer in the woods. In two weeks of hunting every day, all day, my total count of deer seen was 15 doe and not one buck, legal or otherwise."

While others have spoken favorably about the current rules, it is clear from news reports and readers' letters that those opposing the current rules are the majority.

Whether or not it intends to make changes to what Alt put in place, hunters deserve the commission's polite and respectful attention, open dialogue and a willingness to share all pertinent data and thinking.

Thousands of hunters feel they are being shortchanged by the current regulations, and that's thousands of reasons why war talk should be of deep concern to the state agency.