The assumption that ODNR or the PA Game Commission even consider Sportsmen any where near the top of their equations is fundamentally flawed.
Want definitive proof? They are NOT CALLED the Pennsylvania Sportsman's Commission nor The Ohio Department of Sportsman's Resources now are they?
Their priorities are:
#1.) Keeping their Jobs and the powers they bring.
#2.) Keeping the politicians and bureaucrats happy so their boat don't rock.
#3.) Inventorying the "natural resources" including timber and mineral rights along with fish and game and license/fee revenues to maintain an ever increasing budget to fund their income and benefits till their retirement comes.
#4.) Appeasing the loud voices of lobbyists like the Insurance industry, oil and gas folk, outdoor recreation equipment industry, timber industry, ETC.
#5.) Giving lip service to their hunting and fishing management tools who buy the licenses pay the fees and are a third revenue source by way of fines...
Now, out of the above 5 listed, which of them are they least likely to want to interact with? The lowest on their totem pole look to climb up away from this one and on to better paying, more insulated from stress careers in their profession! Remember those bottom rung folks are the ones enforcing the law on the worst of us. Plus the majority of their time is spent in training for identifying and eliminating the threat of the potential crime of the worst of us, such that we are all suspected of being from the worst of us...particularly at night and nearly always carrying some form of weapon!
The problems are baked in to the system and the other revenue streams are a safer and more quickly growing benefit to them!
Enjoy the recreation while you still can and do everything you can to support your fellow sportsmen/women while recruiting the young and minority populations to the sport! It is the only way to slow down the timeline till we lose the privilege which once was our birthright!
When we old folk were growing up we were free to do everything as long as we broke no law and hurt no person. Today that fundamental right has been replaced with government regulation and the need to ask permission of our handlers to do anything!
My signature sentence below had to be condensed to meet the website requirement length. Here is the full quote I paraphrased:
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Samuel Adams
This link will take you to some excellent Samuel Adams Good Reads:
18 quotes from Samuel Adams: 'If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may...
www.goodreads.com