Conservation groups, instructors and individual hunters urged the Pennsylvania Game Commission on Jan. 25 to restore earlier mentored-youth rules and let mentored youths retain big-game tags rather than forcing mentors to relinquish their own tags.

Harold Daub, speaking on behalf of Hunter Nation and its Pennsylvania directors, told commissioners that the mentored-youth program was established under Pennsylvania Families of the Field legislation in 2005 and that the 2015 changes “reduced opportunities” without evidence of widespread abuse. Daub said public-comment records from 2015 showed most commenters opposed the change and urged the commission to restore the earlier program structure.

Bear Davidson, a member of the national board of directors for the National Wild Turkey Federation, told the commission that “we are asking a mentor to choose between their hunting year or a mentee's hunting year,” and that the requirement for mentors to sacrifice their own tag can discourage potential mentors. Krishna Agosta (testifying as a representative of the Congressional Sportsman's Foundation) asked the commission to “take up the discussion on removing the provision that mentors must relinquish their own tag” and noted that 29 other states have no minimum age for big-game harvesting.

Speakers proposed specific fixes: restoring youth tags, issuing both an antler and antlerless tag to mentored youths, removing single-tag transfer limits, and tailoring restrictions by specific management units if needed. Commenters also praised recent changes that allowed more than one mentored youth per mentor in a season; Adam Eckley said that change “allowed me to spend many hours afield with both my boys this season.”

No formal board action or vote was recorded during the public-comment period. Commenters asked the commission to base any rule change on facts and enforcement data rather than perception and said several organizations will provide research and testimony at upcoming meetings.