Pa. Senate approves bill that allows the Game Commission to offer more Sundays for hunting

A bill to allow more Sundays for hunting and ways to address crop damage by wildlife has been approved by the full Senate.

Pa. Senate Bill 67 passed 33-17 on Wednesday. The proposal now goes to the State House of Representatives where it has a similar package of bills to allow more Sunday hunting.

The Senate bill, prime sponsored by Sen. Dan Laughlin of Erie, repeals the ban on Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania and gives the Pennsylvania Game Commission the authority to decide which Sundays should be included in the various hunting seasons. Since 2019, the legislature has approved having three Sundays for hunters. They have been used during the rifle black bear season, archery deer and general firearms deer season.

If adopted, the Game Commission could include as many Sundays as its board of commissioners desires.

"I think the time has come for this to be finalized. I really look forward to watching the license sales numbers once this is fully implemented," Laughlin said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "Because I strongly believe that some of the biggest issues we've had in the hunting community is people's lives are busy and simply having enough time to have a reason to buy a license. If you never have any time to go out, you're not going to buy a license. It's a giant step in the right direction and I'm hopeful that the license sales numbers will bear that out."

If the legislation is approved, the earliest the change to Sunday opportunities could happen would be for the 2025-2026 hunting year.

His bill expanded from Sunday hunting to include some changes to help farmers who have been suffering crop damage from wildlife like deer.

"Getting this bill out of the senate was not an easy task. It took a fair amount of compromise. Sen. (Greg) Rothman worked on the farm package that we amended into it," he said. "He worked on that portion almost exclusively," Laughlin said about the Rothman who represents Perry County and parts of Cumberland and Dauphin counties. "He actually got the Pa. Farm Bureau to be (in favor of) the bill as amended which they were historically opposed to," Laughlin said about Sunday hunting.

The bill requires that at least one of the PGC's nine commissioners be someone who represents the agricultural community.

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Another amendment allows farmers to self-report an animal killed for crop damage and gives them the ability to take the deer to a processor or a commission officer. Under the current regulations, the carcass can only be surrendered to a commission officer.

The bill also includes creating an agriculture access permit list of hunters who are willing to help farmers address crop damage problems.

When hunters purchase their licenses, they can agree to be placed on a registry. Landowners may request the list from the Game Commission to contact people to hunt on their property.

The senate bill also increases penalties for those who trespass on private land. On first offense the penalty increases from a third-degree to a second-degree summary offense and may result in loss of hunting privileges for a year. For a second offense, the charge becomes a misdemeanor and the hunter could lose their license privileges for up to three years.

Senate Bill 67 was introduced by Laughlin and Sens. Devlin Robinson and Jim Brewster, both of Allegheny County, on Feb. 21, 2023. The bill now goes to the state House of Representatives for consideration.

The House has approved a similar package of bills regarding Sunday and agricultural concerns on June 30. House bills 2106, 2107 and 2108, sponsored by Rep. Mandy Steele of Allegheny County, were sent to the Senate’s Game and Fisheries Committee on June 30. One difference between the Senate and House bills is that House Bill 2106 excludes state parks from Sunday hunting.

Laughlin praised Rep. Steele for her efforts.

"It's always helpful when you can get what's basically known as a companion bill moved out of the other chamber as that means there's an appetite to do whatever it is you're trying to do. I thank Mandy Steele for her efforts to get that out of the House. She's obviously a friend of the hunting community," he said. "We'll see how this all plays out. Sen Brewster and I have been working diligently on this for the last eight years."

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Which Sundays can you hunt in Pennsylvania?