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It's a real pleasure to announce once again the popular Wild Game Feast hosted each year by the Altoona Alliance Church located at 3220 Pleasant Valley Blvd. next to Planet Fitness.
After a hiatus because of COVID, the 16th annual installment of this worthwhile event will be held on Saturday, March 18. The buffet style meal will include a variety of delicious wild-game dishes, including elk, moose, bear, deer, rabbit, pheasant and fish, along with sides, desserts and drinks.
And there are always some "regular" foods like store-bought turkey and hot dogs. The featured speaker for the evening will be Pittsburgh Steelers great Jon Kolb, who played offensive tackle and center on the Steelers four Super Bowl championship teams of the 1970s.
Doors for the Altoona Alliance Church Wild Game Feast will open at 4 p.m. and dinner will be served at 5 p.m., followed by Kolb's presentation, a special recognition of veterans, and the awarding of door prizes. Space is limited, however, and tickets are required for admission. A suggested donation of $15 per ticket is requested to help cover the costs of the event.
Although the event is several weeks away, getting tickets early is encouraged to avoid disappointment because they tend to go rather quickly once the word gets out. Tickets will be available starting Monday, Feb. 13 (please, don't call the church this weekend!) at the church office. Tickets are limited to ages 10 and older. To obtain tickets or for more information, call Debbie at the church office at 814-944-0171 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
No pink envelopes
Back in November, it was also my pleasure to report that the state legislature passed a law that would finally do away with the obsolete and overly complicated process of applying for antlerless deer licenses by sending applications and checks to county treasurers' offices in special pink envelopes.
At their regular quarterly meeting on Jan. 28, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners gave preliminary approval to a new process for the sale of antlerless deer licenses. This process will allow hunters now to purchase doe licenses online at www.huntfish.pa.gov or directly from any issuing agent in the state. There will be no applications via mail.
Under the proposal, there will be four rounds of antlerless deer license sales. The first round of doe licenses would go on sale during the first day of license sales for the 2023-24 hunting licenses, which will occur on the fourth Monday in June. This year that date is June 26. Only Pennsylvania residents can apply during the first two weeks of the first round. Nonresidents will be able to apply beginning on the second Monday in July, which is July 10 this year. A hunter can only purchase one license in the first round.
The second round will begin on the fourth Monday of July, which is July 24 this year. A hunter can get a second license for any Wildlife Management Unit that still has tags available, and both residents and nonresidents are eligible to apply. Residents and nonresidents can get a third license where available during the third round that begins on the second Monday of August, which is Aug. 14 this year.
Finally, during the fourth round, a hunter could buy additional licenses based on availability until reaching their personal limit of six. Additional licenses, if available, could be purchased as the hunter harvests antlerless deer and reports them. In each round, antlerless license sales wouldn't begin until 8 a.m.
It is important to remember that this schedule is a preliminary proposal and could be adjusted before it receives a final vote at the Game Commission meeting on April 15. Once the new system has been finalized, the Game Commission intends to make several announcements to inform hunters about obtaining their doe licenses.
To help with that effort the Game Commission is asking hunters to make sure their contact information is correct in their online profile, at www.huntfish.pa.gov, so the agency can be in direct contact with information related to the new process, once approved by the board this spring.
While saying goodbye to the silly pink envelopes and the cumbersome mail-in process is a welcome relief, this major overhaul of the system is likely to have some hiccups at first. One that I can foresee is the electronic licensing system crashing due to what will probably be an unprecedented volume of license sales on the first days of the first and second rounds.
Here's hoping the techno-wizards running that show are ready for the flood gates to open. And the Game Commission has asked hunters, in advance, for patience as the major changes are rolled out.