Representatives of the Pennsylvania
Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, along
with several respected statewide sportsmen’s organizations, will host a
National Hunting and Fishing Day celebration on Tuesday, Sept. 26, in
the East Wing Rotunda of the State Capitol in Harrisburg.
The event, which will feature a series of informational booths, will
run from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., and will include a noon news conference.
The event will highlight the importance hunting, trapping, fishing and
boating, and the related activities supported by the two independent
state agencies has had and continues to have on the state’s cultural
heritage, recreational attributes and economy.
Founded in 1866, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) is
one of the oldest and most effective conservation agencies in the
nation. The Commission is an independent state government agency with
responsibilities for protecting and managing Pennsylvania’s fishery
resources and regulating recreational fishing and boating on
Pennsylvania waters. The PFBC’s mission is “To provide fishing and
boating opportunities through the protection and management of aquatic
resources.”
The funds to accomplish this mission come primarily through the sale
of fishing licenses and boat registrations. No General Fund tax dollars
are used in the operations of the PFBC. To learn more about the PFBC and
its programs, visit www.fish.state.pa.us.
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.
