# PA Youth Mentoring Program Starts July 22!!



## doctariAFC (Aug 25, 2005)

For your reading pleasure. Great job, PA!

*MENTORED YOUTH HUNTING PROGRAM TAKES EFFECT JULY 22*

HARRISBURG - Joined by a coalition of sportsmen, Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe and state Sen. Bob Robbins (R-50) today announced that experienced hunters, who have historically helped pass along the state's rich hunting heritage, now have another way to introduce youths to hunting by serving as a mentor in the new Mentored Youth Hunting Program (MYHP), which officially begins this Saturday, July 22.

"Pennsylvania's hunters, this Saturday, will have an unprecedented opportunity to introduce those under the age of 12 to hunting," Roe said.
"The Mentored Youth Hunting Program will require one interested adult for every young person yearning to become a hunter. Hunting is deeply woven into the cultural fabric that is Pennsylvania, and it is important that we recruit new hunters to carry on this tradition."

On June 6, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners unanimously approved regulations to establish the MYHP. However, the final regulations are scheduled for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on July 22, which means the program will be officially underway and mentors will be able to begin taking youth hunting.

"The logic behind the Mentored Youth Hunting Program is simple and clear:
create expanded youth hunting opportunities without compromising safety afield," Roe said. "This program paves the way for youngsters to nurture their interest in hunting early and allows them to take a more active role in actual hunting while afield with mentoring adults. The program accommodates hands-on use of sporting arms and can promote a better understanding and interest in hunting and wildlife conservation that will help assure hunting's future, as well as reinforce the principles of hunting safely through the close supervision provided by dedicated mentors."

As part of a nationwide effort, Pennsylvania was the first state to pass legislation designed to encourage more young people to take up hunting to increase hunter numbers. The measure was part of a national Families Afield campaign promoted by the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation. In Pennsylvania, the state's leading sportsmen's organizations formed a coalition to promote the measure. 

"In Pennsylvania, hunting and trapping have an annual $4.8 billion economic impact and are responsible for supporting more than 45,000 jobs," said Sen.
Robbins, who sponsored the enabling legislation for the Mentored Youth Hunting Program. "As such, it is important that we not only work to retain hunters, but to attract the next generation in Pennsylvania. That is what the Mentored Youth Hunting Program is all about."

Representatives of those organizations who served on the MYHP ad hoc committee and joined in today's announcement were: Ron Fretts, National Wild Turkey Federation (N***); Greg Caldwell and Jon Pries, Pennsylvania Chapter of the N***; Melody Zullinger, the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs; Jen Sager, the United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania; Patrick Domico, Central Counties Concerned Sportsmen; Tom Baldrige and Kory Enck, National Rifle Association (NRA); and John Kline and Monica Kline of Kline Associates. Those committee members unable to attend today's event were:
Kip Adams, Quality Deer Management Association; and Rob Sexton, U.S.
Sportsmen's Alliance. 

Each of these representatives, as well as Sen. Robbins, received a certificate of appreciation from the Game Commission for his or her efforts in garnering legislative approval to enable the agency to implement the program. 

Under the program, a mentor is defined as a properly licensed individual at least 21 years of age, who will serve as a guide to a youth while engaged in hunting or related activities, such as scouting, learning firearm or hunter safety and wildlife identification. A mentored youth would be defined as an unlicensed individual less than 12 years of age who is accompanied by a mentor while engaged in hunting or related activities.

The regulations require that the mentor-to-mentored youth ratio be one-to-one, and that the pair possesses only one sporting arm when hunting.
While moving, the sporting arm must be carried by the mentor. When the pair reaches a stationary hunting location, the mentor may turn over possession of the sporting arm to the youth and must keep the youth within arm's length at all times.

The species identified as legal game for the 2006-07 license year - the first year of the MYHP - are squirrels, woodchucks (groundhogs) and spring gobbler. The Board approved adding antlered deer in the 2007-08 seasons.
The Board noted that those youths participating in the MYHP would be required to follow the same antler restrictions as a junior license holder, which is one antler of three or more inches in length or one antler with at least two points.

The program also requires that both the mentor and the youth must abide by any fluorescent orange regulations, and that the mentored youth must tag and report any wild turkey taken by making and attaching a tag that contains their name, address, date, WMU, township, and county where it was taken.
Also, the youth must submit a harvest report card, which is available on page 33 of the 2006-07 Digest, within five days for any gobbler he or she takes.

"As this will be the first year of the Mentored Youth Hunting Program, the agency decided it was prudent to start out slow and then refine the program after we've had a chance to evaluate response to it," Roe said. "This is consistent with other agency actions. For example, youth seasons were introduced one or two at a time; some youth seasons started with only a day or two and were expanded later."

On Oct. 4, the Board of Game Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution endorsing creation of the MYHP. Sponsored by House Game and Fisheries Committee Chairman Bruce Smith, House Bill 1690 was amended by Sen. Robbins.
Sen. Robbins' amendment empowered the Game Commission to create the MYHP, and the amended bill was unanimously approved by the Senate and passed the House by a vote of 195-1. Governor Edward G. Rendell signed the bill into law on Dec. 22, making the measure Act 86 of 2005.

On April 18, the Board gave preliminary approval to regulations to implement the MYHP, and then gave final approval to the regulations on June 6. With publication of the regulations in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, the Commonwealth's official gazette for information and rulemaking, scheduled for July 22, the program will officially be "on the books," and mentors can begin taking youth afield.

For more information on the program, visit the Game Commission's website
(www.pgc.state.pa.us) and click on "Mentored Youth FAQs" in "Quick Clicks"
box in the upper right corner of the homepage. Information also is included on page 15 of the 2006-07 Pennsylvania Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations.

Created in 1895 as an independent state agency, the Game Commission is responsible for conserving and managing all wild birds and mammals in the Commonwealth, establishing hunting seasons and bag limits, enforcing hunting and trapping laws, and managing habitat on the 1.4 million acres of State Game Lands it has purchased over the years with hunting and furtaking license dollars to safeguard wildlife habitat. The agency also conducts numerous wildlife conservation programs for schools, civic organizations and sportsmen's clubs. 

The Game Commission does not receive any general state taxpayer dollars for its annual operating budget. The agency is funded by license sales revenues; the state's share of the federal Pittman-Robertson program, which is an excise tax collected through the sale of sporting arms and ammunition; and monies from the sale of oil, gas, coal, timber and minerals derived from State Game Lands.


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