Last weekend, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners held its first regular meeting of 2026. At their January meeting each year, the commissioners give preliminary approval to the slate of hunting seasons and bag limits for the upcoming year and then give final approval to that schedule ...
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners is scheduled to hold their regular quarterly meeting next weekend in Harrisburg. Typically, the main agenda item for their January meeting is the proposed hunting seasons and bag limits for the upcoming year. Most years, those proposed seasons are almost a carbon copy of the previous year and, with possibly a few tweaks here-and-there, are given final approval at the next meeting in April. Last Thursday, however, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) announced that the Board of Commissioners would be considering two proposals regarding the ...
As one who has always been close to the outdoors and the natural world, the recent bout of harsh winter weather with high winds and cold temperatures brings home the reality of how tough wintertime can be. Forests that just a few months ago were green and lush while hosting a symphony of bird calls now appear mostly stark and deserted, little more than a collection of lonely, bare trees. Fields that hosted countless wildflowers, alive with visiting bees and butterflies, are also now flat and mostly vacant except for a few lonesome stalks of dried weeds waving in the winter wind. ...
Peyton Sylvester, 12 of Duncansville, recently shot a 6-point buck while hunting with her father, Drew, and grandfather, Don Sylvester. Peyton got the buck hunting at the family’s camp in Robisonville. She is a seventh grade student at Hollidaysburg.
Winter officially arrives this weekend in the Northern Hemisphere, at 10:03 on Sunday morning to be precise. Known as the winter solstice, it is also the shortest day of the year. Each day from then on will get a little longer until late March when the first day of spring arrives, known as the vernal equinox, when the day and night are the same length. The days continue growing longer until the first day of summer in June, also known as the summer solstice, when the days begin getting shorter again. Although all four seasons of the year are identical in length, winter can often seem ...
The regular deer season comes to a close this weekend, but because I’m composing this column with several days left in the second week, I can only report I haven’t acquired any venison for the freezer so far. But I plan to be out trying to rectify that situation before time runs out this season. Having snow on the ground for almost all of the first week was enjoyable. One afternoon last week I sat on the side of a steep hollow. I had shot a nice 8-point at that spot a couple of years ago on opening day, so I was hoping for a repeat of that success. No deer happened by on that ...
