In Pennsylvania, the national holiday of Thanksgiving and the retail festivities of Black Friday are quickly followed by the state’s own seasonal celebration.
Bust out your camouflage and fluorescent orange. It’s deer season.
Since 2019, the first day of regular firearm hunting for antlered and antlerless deer has come on the last Saturday of November.
Before that, deer season was an extension of the holiday break, starting the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Many school districts in the Keystone State had off the first day of deer season. In more rural areas, it could be hard to find businesses open that day — unless the business was tied to hunting.
There are plenty of businesses that are. In addition to specific sporting goods stores where people could buy licenses, guns, bullets and assorted gear, there are the gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, beer distributors and other shops outfitting hunters and their camps.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission shows hunting and fishing contribute $1.6 billion to the state’s economy annually. There is $257 million in tax money generated from federal to state to local level.
But beyond the money, hunting — particularly deer hunting — occupies a special place in the state’s identity. In a state of about 13 million people, almost 1 in 13 hunt. Only Texas has more. The state’s 16.6 million acres of forests cover more than half the total area. Estimates put the deer population at 30 per square mile.
That first Monday start had an almost ritual significance to many hunters. It was as integral to their personal traditions as turkey on the Thanksgiving table and putting up the Christmas tree. Thousands are pushing for the Saturday start to be changed. There are 5,000 people in a Facebook group dedicated to it. In October, House Game and Fisheries Minority Chair Rep. David Maloney, R-Berks, tried to do so with an amendment to a bill.
It was voted down, keeping the start on Saturday. Committee Chair Rep. Anita Kulik, D-Kennedy, said it should be addressed as individual pieces of legislation instead of with an amendment.
That would be fine but for one thing: The Legislature is where bills go to die rather than be passed. Good ideas — and, to be fair, bad ones — are introduced, go to committee and are never heard from again. Introducing a bill in Harrisburg is like dressing it in camouflage.
Hunting is an important part of the state’s culture and a vital part of its economy. It can’t be allowed to languish for lack of attention — and forcing the deer season start date to be a separate bill and a separate vote seems guaranteed to do just that.
Maybe, like a hunter following safety rules, the bill should be dressed in bright orange so it can’t be missed.