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As anyone following activities at either the Game Commission or the Fish and Boat Commission knows, the Whitetail Management Institute conducted a joint study on the agencies' future path.
The report is now available, and the question is, "What does it say?"
The full report is 81 pages, so I obviously don't have time to go through every aspect. Nor, I am sure, do you have the desire to read the entire thing. So, I will note the highlights and provide my thoughts and insights based on over 25 years with the Fish and Boat Commission.
The purpose of the commissioned study, and the resulting report, was to examine the current state of each commission, identify cost savings through asset sharing, and make recommendations accordingly. Despite widespread rumors to the contrary, the study was never meant to justify a full-fledged merger, although it was a real possibility that it would be recommended.
It was not.
The WMI study showed that the commissions face serious long-term funding shortfalls and that the combined agencies' overall staffing exceeds that of comparable agencies in surrounding states. Regardless of the direction either agency takes, future survival will require changes.
Pennsylvania is the only state with two distinct agencies that manage its fish and wildlife resources. This was at the center of both the study and the resulting report. WMI pointed to the large amount of money spent on funding law enforcement efforts, maintaining field offices and two agencies with often-repeated administrative positions.
On the surface, these points appear valid and, without additional information, should cause concern. However, it is important to remember that many other states -- even those with a single fish and game agency -- still have separate agencies to address issues such as boating or pollution investigations, both of which are part of the PFBC's mission.
Furthermore, many field offices are non-public work locations for teams such as food and cover, maintenance or grounds crews. These field offices are more accurately work locations and are strategically located near properties the commissions maintain statewide so that crews can be closer to the areas they maintain to avoid excessive travel. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania maintains one of the largest number of gamelands and fishing/boating access points of any state nationwide, all with the purpose of providing free access to our commonwealth's natural resources.
Of greatest concern is the financial health of the commissions. According to the WMI report, each agency will exhaust its financial funds within the next decade. This means that during that time, the commissions will need to dip into these savings to pay day-to-day costs. When those emergency funds are exhausted, the day-to-day expenses will not decrease. Basic economics means costs will likely increase. So, how will the commissions meet basic expenses come year 11?
The most important point of the study is that agency funding models need to change in order to sustain each commission past the next decade. However, the report does not provide a clear path regarding how that model should change. It does recommend sharing resources and personnel when possible.
A joint law enforcement division, shared office space, shared personnel and resources for property maintenance and the cutting of duplicate positions at each agency.
Each of these recommendations faces significant hurdles, not least of which are laws that prohibit game, fish or boat funds from being used for anything other than very specific purposes. There are ways around this via authorized cost sharing or legislative action, but other areas are likely impossible to implement.
This would include sharing administrative or executive personnel. As separate agencies with distinct missions, attempting to do so would be little different than PennDOT and DCNR sharing these positions.
As much as I hate saying it, the most likely path forward is cutting positions and the costs associated with them. Many agency personnel have already been asked to do more with less -- such as law enforcement, hatcheries, maintenance crews, to name a few.
Now it is time for others to do the same.
Reducing executive and administrative positions, especially at the Game Commission, would have little impact on the hunting and fishing public. Many of the duties performed could be consolidated, updated to better use technology, or simply shifted to increase the workload on some employees year-round rather than seasonally.