'DCNR is not anti-hunting'

That's the message carried in a recent story appearing in Pennsylvania Outdoor News (paoutdoornews.com), an Internet-based information service for sportsmen.

Terry Brady, deputy press secretary for the Pa. Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources, told editor Jeff Mulhollem that DCNR sometimes gets a bad rap from deer hunters.

"We are one-thousand percent in favor of hunting," Brady said. "To say we aren't is ridiculous."

Brady pointed out that the misconception likely stems from hunters who are upset over DCNR's cooperation with the Pa. Game Commission's deer management program.

"We view our forests as a multi-faceted resource," he said. "Some people would like to view them as a deer resource . . . We want healthy forests and we want healthy deer."

Brady agreed that state tourist promotion officials may not emphasize hunting enough when promoting outdoor recreation in the Pennsylvania Wilds, but he added that business operators in the northcentral counties are looking beyond hunting to attract visitors.

DCNR hopes to blunt hunters' criticisms by meeting with sportsmen's groups and re-examining some department operations.

"We will be showing folks that we support not only hiking and mountain biking, but also hunting," Brady said.

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Wilds promotion campaign told Mulhollem that the organization also plans to revise its marketing pitches to give hunting a greater emphasis.