“We’re finally free of the British,” said state Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny.
The minority chair of the House Game and Fisheries Committee was elated Thursday to have been an important part of a historic vote in which hunting on Sundays cleared the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the first time since the founding of the United States. The proposal is now back where it started, in the state Senate.
Among the original religiously based restrictions, the prohibition on Sunday hunting dates to before they were called Blue Laws. Eighty years ago, when the Pennsylvania legislature reconsidered several archaic laws, Sunday fishing was legalized but hunting on Sundays remained a crime.
During the last 20 years, previous versions of the Sunday hunting bill dealt primarily with hunting safety. With 47 states experiencing no Sunday hunting safety problems, the current bill focused on trespassing.
This year the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, which represents family farms and huge agricultural interests that have chronic hunter trespass problems, presented legislators with a list of conditions intended to keep hunters off properties where they are not wanted.
In June, the state Senate passed a compromise bill that reflected those demands. It would create a new crime, hunting trespass, which could be enforced by Game Commission personnel as well as police. Maximum second offense penalties could include prison time and revocation of hunting privileges. SB147 would permit hunting on just three Sundays: one during firearm deer season, another in archery deer season and a third Sunday at the discretion of the Game Commission.
Last week, with House legislators from farming regions on the fence, Mr. Kortz, a former steel worker from Dravosburg, added an amendment that would require Sunday hunters to have written landowner permission. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, he said.
“You won’t have to have that written permission slip in your pocket,” he said. “We have an agreement with the Game Commission.”
If the bill passes, the Game Commission is expected to write a new procedure in which law enforcement officials can enter a property following a landowner complaint.
Additional amendments would permit the unarmed owners of wayward hunting dogs to enter posted properties to retrieve their animals. The Sunday hunting bill would become state law 90 days after it’s signed by the governor.
Mr. Kortz, who represents Allegheny County, acknowledged that some of his constituents probably oppose Sunday hunting.
“I’m from the Mon Valley. There’s a lot of hunters down there. I think they support this,” he said. “To me, it’s a property rights issue. We just want to hunt on our own land [on Sundays] — that’s the other way to look at it. People who hunt on public land in Allegheny National Forest where there are no farms, why can’t they hunt on Sundays?”
Thomas W. Redfern, legislative chair of United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania, commended Mr. Kortz for taking a leadership role in moving Sunday hunting along.
“Hunters with permission to hunt are almost always the first line of defense against trespassing and poaching. Legal, ethical hunters are the eyes and ears that help law enforcement against trespassers and poachers,” he said.
“Will legalized Sunday hunting reduce trespassing? Absolutely yes. But not because of some Farm Bureau compromise trespass language, but by allowing legal, ethical hunters to be in the woods on Sunday protecting the resource, respecting the rights of landowners and reporting any trespassing poachers they encounter.”
The Senate is expected to reexamine the bill and its three amendments and vote Nov. 18. If approved it will be on Governor Wolf’s desk the same day.
If it passes, Klint Macro, president of Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League, said he hopes non-hunters can accept a safe multiuse policy in Pennsylvania’s wild places. He’d ask them to “pay attention to your surroundings and enjoy your hike or bike ride,” he said.
“For an extra ounce of safety, wearing an orange hat would increase your ability to be seen while enjoying our Penn’s Woods. I make sure every time my child plays in the woods behind our house during hunting season, he has on his orange hat.”
First Published: October 31, 2019, 8:19 p.m.
