Gov. Ed Rendell last week signed into law a bill that protects from liability the owners of private property who allow people to hunt and fish on their lands. Most of the hunting in Pennsylvania is done on private property rather than publicly owned land.
New regulation shields landowners who allow hunting
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There's a lot of fighting going on these days between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and our state Legislature.
Primarily, they've been fighting over deer.
Fortunately, however, the differences the two sides have over deer populations didn't derail House Bill 13 and prevent it being signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell on Monday.
This is the bill that exempts landowners from liability for accidents or injuries that are caused by someone hunting on their land, whether the injury happens on or off their property.
If you hunt on private property in Pennsylvania, you should be extremely thankful for the efforts of the Game Commission, the Legislature and the governor in getting this bill signed into law so quickly.
Previous Pennsylvania law, which was passed in 1965, protected landowners who allow others to use their land for a wide variety of recreational purposes, such as hunting, fishing, swimming and hiking.
Landowners were free from liability so long as they allowed recreational users access to their land without requiring a fee.
House Bill 13 closes a loophole in the law that was brought to light last fall by a court case in Lehigh County in which a landowner was found partially liable for a shooting accident.
In that case, the injured victim was not on the same property as the hunter, but sustained her injury nearly a half-mile from where the bullet was fired.
House Bill 13 clearly states that landowners will not be liable for accidents caused by someone using their land for hunting, no matter where the actual injury takes place.
"Pennsylvania landowners need to know that if they allow hunters on their land, they are fully protected," said state Rep. Ed Staback of Lackawanna and Wayne counties. "Without this law, there was a serious threat to the hunting traditions of our state.
"If private landowners had shut down their land out of fear of being sued, hundreds of thousands of hunters would have found themselves turned out from property they have hunted on for years."
Before Rendell signed it into law, House Bill 13 was approved by a vote of 50-0 in the Senate and by a vote of 199-0 in the House.
Aside from approving a great piece of legislation, the parties involved demonstrated they can work together.
Maybe there's hope the deer debate and the Game Commission's need for more funding both can be resolved.
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Hunters are nothing if not inventive. There are more hunting-related gadgets on the market today than you can shake a stick at.
Sometimes, when a new gadget hits the market, however, it doesn't quite conform to state hunting regulations and is illegal for use in that state until the law catches up.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission last week changed its laws to allow the use of two new hunting gadgets this fall.
Now permitted for use are muzzleloading firearms that are discharged via electronic pulse.
Never heard of these?
Connecticut Valley Arms, better known as CVA, has created the Electra in-line muzzleloader, which eliminates the need for primer caps.
Instead of causing a hammer to drop and set off a primer cap, pulling the Electra's trigger is like flipping an electric switch.
A charge from a 9-volt battery is released to ignite the powder in the barrel and fire the bullet.
Pennsylvania hunters will be permitted to use these electronic-pulse-fired muzzleloaders during the early October muzzleloader season and any other firearms deer season.
They will not, however, be permitted in the late flintlock season, which requires hunters to use flintlock-ignition only muzzleloaders.
Also permitted for use this fall are illuminated nocks for arrows and bolts.
If you watch any bowhunting shows on video or The Outdoor Channel, odds are you've heard the talking heads on TV mention the Lumenok.
A Lumenok is affixed at the aft end of an arrow or bolt in place of a standard nock, and it lights up when the arrow or bolt is shot from a bow or crossbow.
It's powered by a lithium battery and the light can help a hunter recover a shot arrow and possibly assist in locating shot game.
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The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will hold its summer meeting July 16-17 at the agency's headquarters in Harrisburg.
Nothing is too controversial on the agenda for this meeting. There is one small item with a local impact, however.
As it does periodically, the agency is proposing some changes to the regulations for fishing the Conowingo Reservoir section of the Susquehanna River.
The Maryland /Pennsylvania border runs through this reservoir, making it nearly impossible to discern when you cross over from Pennsylvania into Maryland and vice versa.
Because of that, the two states have agreed that Maryland law should govern the entire reservoir south of the Holtwood Dam.
Maryland law allows anglers to keep only two trout per day, while Pennsylvania law allows anglers to creel five fish per day.
I don't know how many trout there are swimming in the Conowingo Reservoir, but the PFBC is proposing a regulations change to reduce the number of trout an angler can creel there from five per day to two in order to match Maryland's regulation.
E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com