Looking for a State Game Lands app for your phone?

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Game Commission today announced an update to the “PA State Game Lands” app, which can be downloaded for most mobile devices through links on the Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us).

“Using a smartphone or tablet’s built-in navigation features, this app provides turn-by-turn directions to destinations you select and includes destination-specific details such as WMU, county, acreage, hunting zones, hunting hours, 2012-13 seasons and bag limits and more,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director.

The app has built-in mapping capabilities allowing you to browse State Game Land boundaries, parking areas and shooting ranges displayed over your choice of USGS 7.5 minute topographic maps, satellite imagery or road maps. No cellular service where you’re headed? Cache maps on your device for use offline.

Simple menus allow users to search for State Game Lands by the State Game Land number, Wildlife Management Unit or by which SGL is the closest to your present location. All results appear in distance order, allowing the user to find the nearest State Game Lands access no matter where you are.

Looking for State Game Lands beyond your current location? Just enter any Pennsylvania city into the search criteria to plan your next adventure. Then save your favorite destinations for future use.

The app also allows you to find and navigate to Game Commission facilities and shooting ranges.

Use the “Report Your Harvest” feature to phone in or input harvests and follow turn-by-turn directions to bear and elk check stations.

“This update includes significant enhancements, including many that users have requested,” Roe said. Users can now store maps on their device for navigating with or without cellular service. Other improvements include 7.5 minute USGS topographic maps, State Game Lands boundaries, new search enhancements to find destinations using maps, fast links to report violations and access a Hunting Hours table and the Game Commission’s mobile website.

The app was developed by Gogal Publishing, of Warrington, Bucks County, and sells for $9.99 (plus tax).

Primarily purchased with hunter/furtaker license dollars, there are 1.4 million acres of State Game Lands, spread out over 65 of our 67 counties – Philadelphia and Delaware counties being the two exceptions.  These lands are managed by the Game Commission for wildlife and to serve as public hunting and trapping areas. If the more than 300 numbered blocks of State Game Lands were all pulled together, the land mass would comprise an area larger than the state of Delaware.

RESULTS OF 2012 ELK HUNT ANNOUNCED

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today announced that 52 elk were harvested by the 65 hunters awarded elk licenses for the recently concluded 2012 elk hunt, which was held Nov. 5-10.  Of that total, 18 were antlered and 34 were antlerless. 
The heaviest antlered elk was taken by Richard Tratthen, Jr., of Scott Township, Lackawanna County. He took a 840-pound (estimated live weight), 8x8 on Nov. 7, in Jay Township, Elk County.

Other large antlered elk (all estimated live weights) were: Robin Carleton of Mansfield, Tioga County, took a 775-pound 7x7 on Nov. 7 in Covington Township, Clearfield County; Roger Rummel of Nanty Glo, Cambria County, took a 758-pound, 7x7 on Nov. 8, in Covington Township, Clearfield County; Charles Ulrich of Allenwood, Union County, took a 729-pound 7x7 on Nov. 5 in Karthus Township, Clearfield County; and Charles Cahill, Jr., of Upper Darby, Delaware County, took a 720-pound 6x6 on Nov. 7 in Covington Township, Clearfield County.

The heaviest antlerless elk was taken by Sylvester Kronenwetter of Saint Marys, Elk County. He took an antlerless elk that weighed 616 pounds on Nov. 9 in Huston Township in Clearfield County.

Those hunters rounding out the top five heaviest antlerless elk harvested were: Barry Rhoad of Fredericksburg, Lebanon County, 551-pound elk in Gibson Township, Cameron County, on Nov. 7; Terry McLaughlin of Greensburg, Westmoreland County, 549-pound elk on Nov 9, in Benezette Township, Elk County; Ed Roupe of East Fairfield, Vermont, 538-pound elk in West Keating Township, Clinton County, on Nov. 7; and Frank Webster of Greencastle, Franklin County, 520-pound elk in Benezette Township, Elk County on Nov. 7.

“Since 2001, when the first modern-day elk season was instituted, 523 elk have been harvested,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “In 2013, the Game Commission will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the elk restoration project. Watch future issues of Game News and the agency website for more highlights on this major conservation milestone.”

As has been the case every year, agency biologists extracted samples needed for chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing, and results are expected early next year.

For more information on elk in Pennsylvania, visit the Game Commission’s website: www.pgc.state.pa.us , put your cursor over “HUNT/TRAP” in the menu bar in the banner, choose “Hunting,” and then click on “Elk” in the listing under “Big Game.”