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Our Opinion: On anniversary of 9/11 attacks, pay tribute to victims in right way; do a good deed

<p>Steve Germick is proud of the 13 acres of food plots that were planted on State Game Lands 57 this summer.</p><p>He&#8217;s just a little disappointed he can&#8217;t show the public what the volunteers from Whitetails Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation have done this summer.</p><p>For the last several years, volunteers such as Germick, representing several conservation organizations, looked forward to the day when they could show the public all the habitat improvement work they&#8217;ve done for wildlife on SGL 57. Each year the Pennsylvania Game Commission conducted self-guided driving tours on select game lands during the fall, giving the public a firsthand look at the beauty of the properties and a chance to interact with the agency employees who manage them.</p><p>The tours were also an opportunity for groups to show the public what they&#8217;ve done to improve wildlife habitat on the game lands. On SGL 57, groups such as Whitetails Unlimited, National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever and Delta Waterfowl set up booths in front of their habitat projects to greet people as they stopped during the tour.</p><p>That won&#8217;t happen this year.</p><p>Due to a lean budget, the PGC canceled all game lands tours this year. Held during late September when fall foliage was beginning to peak, the tours attracted thousands of people to some game lands. While the tours were free, they were costly to the Game Commission as agency personnel worked to prepare roads for public use and log overtime to oversee the programs.</p><p>Agency spokesman Travis Lau called the move to cancel the tours a &#8220;tough decision&#8221; but said it is one of several cuts the PGC had to make while they wait for the state legislature to approve a license fee increase.</p><p>&#8220;The tours were a good opportunity to reach new audiences beyond the ranks of hunters and trappers and educate people about the Game Commission and wildlife of Pennsylvania,&#8221; Lau said.</p><p>The agency held annual tours on eight game lands across the state, including SGL 57 in Luzerne, Sullivan and Wyoming counties and SGL 12 in Bradford County. Last year, approximately 800 people participated in the tour on SGL 57, more than 1,100 visited SGL 12 and 300 toured SGL 141 in Carbon County. Lau said overtime costs for the Northeast Region related to the tours was around $6,000 last year.</p><p>Germick said he understands the current financial plight of the agency and the need to cut costs, but he added canceling the tours means a lot of people will miss out on a major educational component.</p><p>&#8220;All of the groups are proud of the volunteer work they do with the Game Commission to improve habitat on 57. That&#8217;s one reason why so many people went on the tour every year, so they could see the habitat work and ask questions,&#8221; Germick said. &#8220;The public will miss out, as will the Game Commission and the groups who do work there.&#8221;</p><p>Bill Williams, information and education supervisor for the PGC&#8217;s Northeast Region, said his office has been getting several calls a day from people wanting to know when the game lands tours will be held.</p><p>Now, Williams expects those calls to switch to people asking why the tours were canceled.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s going to be some disappointed people out there. The tours were good for us and the conservation groups who do work on game lands,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;It was a good way to showcase the habitat work to the public. We try to promote it in other ways as well, but there&#8217;s nothing like having people being right there in it.&#8221;</p><p>Lau said Senate Bill 1166, which would allow the Game Commission to set its own license fees, would help the agency&#8217;s financial situation and possibly allow it to bring back the tours. The bill passed the Senate in June and has been referred to the House Game and Fisheries Committee.</p><p>In addition to canceling the game lands tours, the agency has already laid off some employees and seasonal biologist aides and postponed recruiting for a new Wildlife Conservation Officer class, which is needed to fill vacant districts around the state, Lau said.</p><p>Lau added hasn&#8217;t heard discussion on specifics for additional cuts, or if any will be made.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re hopeful the day soon comes where we don&#8217;t have to make cuts,&#8221; Lau said.</p><p>Germick said the conservation groups will continue to volunteer their time to improve the habitat on game lands, adding that much of the recent work is along the 23-mile driving route that used to comprise the SGL 57 tour.</p><p>&#8220;There was an educational component to the tour, but it&#8217;s also just a beautiful area that people, including a lot of families, just liked to come out and see it,&#8221; Germick said.</p><p>&#8220;I was kind of surprised when it was canceled, but I knew it could happen.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Members of Whitetails Unlimited stand in front of a browse cut conducted during the winter. The group is one of several conservation organizations that showcased the volunteer work it does during an annual public tour of State Game Lands 57. Due to financial issues, the Pennsylvania Game Commission canceled all game lands tours this year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_SGL-tours-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Members of Whitetails Unlimited stand in front of a browse cut conducted during the winter. The group is one of several conservation organizations that showcased the volunteer work it does during an annual public tour of State Game Lands 57. Due to financial issues, the Pennsylvania Game Commission canceled all game lands tours this year. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Game lands tours fall victim to PGC budget crunch