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November 30, 2008 |
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PLEASE WRITE THE COMMISSIONERS – NOW!
The proposal to legalize general crossbow use during the archery season was given preliminary approval by the PGC Board of Commissioners at the October 24, 2008 meeting of that Board. After a 90-day comment period this proposal will be up for final adoption at the annual Seasons & Bag Limits Meeting to be held at the Game Commission Office in Harrisburg, on January 25, 26, 27, 2009. If you oppose general crossbow use in the archery season, by other than those with a handicap permit, it is now the time to write once again. This time however it is time to write the Commissioners directly.
Many of you already sent in the card provided to you by the UBP, and some wrote letters prior to the Board of Commissioners actions this past October. Actually 1400 cards and letters of opposition were received by the PGC, but if we have any hope of seeing this proposal defeated at the January meeting there will have to be an even larger number arrive before that meeting.
The fate of this proposal now rest most assuredly in the hands of Pennsylvania bow hunters. The only chance we have to defeat this proposal is through a significant number of letters of opposition – even more than the most recent 1400 -, as well as a large presence of bow hunters at the January meeting. Letters are not everyone’s forte, but the message can be as short and simple as “I oppose the proposal to approve general use of the crossbow during the six week archery season.”
Please write, and please encourage other bow hunters to do the same. We are down to the wire and nothing less than significant numbers of letters to the PGC Commissioners and significant numbers of bow hunters showing up at the January meeting will prevent this proposal from receiving final approval.
Send a letter to each Commissioner at the following address:
Commissioner____________ Pennsylvania Game Commission 2001 Elmerton Avenue Harrisburg, PA 17110-9797
Or email: Commissioner Roxane Palone, President vrpalone@windstream.net Commissioner Gregory J. Isabella, Vice President secommissioner@aol.com Commissioner James J. Delaney, Secretary PGCDistrict7@aol.com Commissioner Thomas Boop tboop@verizon.net Commissioner H. Daniel Hill dhilllaw@msn.com Commissioner Russell Schleiden reschleiden@intergate.com Commissioner David W. Schreffler c-dschreff@state.pa.us Commissioner Ronald Weaner rweaner@superpa.net
Please take the time to send your message of opposition to each Commissioner. Simply say that you oppose general use of the crossbow during the archery season. If you want to add more feel free to do so, but please be polite.
UPDATE ON HOUSE BILL 2653
House Bill 2653 – redefines a crossbow as a bow – is temporarily on hold thanks largely to the letters, emails, and phone calls from UBP members and fellow bow hunters, to their senators and representatives, but make no mistake this bill is far from dead. With the next session of the General Assembly slated to convene in January this bill may once again see action by its sponsors to push it out of committee and onto the floor for a vote. The UBP Legislative Committee will be keeping a close watch on this bill and you may once again receive a UBP One Call asking for action on the part of our members. In the meantime, follow-up contacts with your Legislators are a good way to remind them of your opposition to this bill.
The links below have documents in Adobe PDF format which can be printed
out
to distribute to other bowhunters.