With the recent enactment of legislation authorizing a "Mentored Youth Hunt Program," Pennsylvania Game Commission staff is working to develop proposed regulatory language for the Board of Game Commissioners to consider at its upcoming meeting on April 17-18.

"The purpose of this program is to introduce new and younger people to Pennsylvania hunting," said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director.  "The quality time that can be shared between a youth and a mentor is immeasurable.  There simply is no better way to introduce a young person to safe, ethical and responsible aspects of hunting than with the close supervision of an adult mentor.

"Today, we all seem to have less and less free time, and we never seem to place the proper value on the truly important things.  There can be no greater way to instill values, provide the ideal time and place to teach conservation, respect, ethics and the responsibilities that we all have as caretakers of our streams and forests, than by adopting a Youth Mentored Hunting Program in Pennsylvania."

The committee of organizations promoting the Mentored Youth Hunting Program are: the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, the United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania, the National Rifle Association, Big Brothers/Big Sisters Pass It On Program, the Quality Deer Management Association, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance.

On Oct. 4, prior to the General Assembly's action on the measure, the Board unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Game Commissioner Gregory J. Isabella to endorse the Mentored Youth Hunting Program.

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