In reviewing the progress of the 2020-21 Antlerless license sales for WMU 2D, I saw that all of the 60,000 licenses that had been available were sold out this week.

There are some 18,000 available for our next-door region in WMU 1A, which covers the west of Route 8 and Lawrence/Mercer/Venango Counties. The discussion around is that many folks will have renewed interest in hunting this year.

The drought-like conditions have made the woods and fields extremely dry and conditions can be dangerous for fire hazards. It has caused many apple and oak trees to drop their fruit early and many are stunted.

Elk tag drawing

Did you get the chance to watch the annual elk tag drawing out of Benezette this year? Even though the Elk Expo was cancelled, the PA Game Commission live streamed a drawing for the 125-plus tags offered this year.

No, I did not score on a tag, but I did see someone from Butler did pull a tag! Good luck to them and I hope that they have a successful and exciting experience.

Everyone needs to check out the Keystone Elk Country Alliances’ Elk Country Visitors Center in Benezette, Pa. It is a great drive and the entire area has many interesting activities and sights to see.

The route to Benezette is directly off of Interstate 80 and less than two hours from Butler. If you go to see the elk, your chances are pretty good if you start at the Elk Country visitor center, Benezette Hotel or the Benezette Country Store areas.

The bull elk will be starting to bugle and look for cows in the upcoming weeks. Take your binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras for an amazing show of Pa Wild’s largest game animals.

Hungry critters

My neighbors are not in a great mood as the deer and groundhogs have been ravaging their vegetable gardens.

They had nice crops of tomatoes and vine crops almost ready to pick and the wildlife decided to taste all of the produce. One bite out of each tomato and then they decided they didn’t like tomatoes and spit out the bite they took in one garden.

It wouldn’t be too bad if they tasted one and quit, but they bit into 43 tomatoes and left one bite in each! I feel for them and have my own battles with the critters as well.

The wildlife can be relentless on a garden and plantings all around a homestead.

This year, I built a stone flower bed and planted an array of perennials in the bed. Just as the plants started to develop nicely, they were chomped on by both deer and a groundhog.

I decided to put up a wire enclosure to discourage the wildlife from grazing on my flora project and encircled the flower bed. It seemed to do the trick until this drought-like weather really dried up much of the natural food sources for all of the native herbivore species.

Sitting on my deck, I was watching the fence that I put up around the flower garden when to my dismay, I saw Mr. Groundhog emerge from the woods. He looked at my fence and pulled one heck of a stunt … he belly flopped onto my fence and rolled into the flower bed and commenced to chomp on my perennials!

I spooked him off, but he had done damage that may or may not be able to recover. Lesson learned and the fence was reinforced and is higher now and I am still giving that “old silverback” a reprieve. Live and let live is my motto for now.

Fall archery season

We are getting close to the Fall Archery season opener on Oct. 3, which means that archers should be taking the time to sharpen their marksmanship skills.

This is also the time to check your arrows, bolts, broadheads and bow strings. Trying to get your bow reconditioned or repaired in the middle of archery season is not a wise choice.

This year the archery season has been extended until Nov. 20, which is in the middle of the prime rut. There is every opportunity for the bow hunter in these modern times to harvest a buck or doe or both.

Squirrel hunting

Squirrel hunting season opens up on Sept. 12, which is the earliest starting date ever offered to small game hunters in Pennsylvania.

You may use small caliber rifles, shotguns or archery equipment to hunt the gray, fox, or black squirrels that roam the woodlands. Semi-auto rifles are permitted to hunt squirrels and other small game and varmints.

The good news is that there are plenty of squirrels and the .22 ammo supplies are once again plentiful and reasonably priced.

Until we meet again, get ready for the start of the fall hunting and be extra careful of your targets!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle