Mar. 31, 2025
HARRISBURG – New legislation authored by Rep. Perry Stambaugh (R-Perry/Juniata) would create a cost-share program to help farmers and foresters erect deterrent fencing to reduce crop and sapling damage from deer, bear, elk, turkeys, and other wildlife.
Stambaugh envisions a 50/50 cost-share fencing program, with the state’s half coming from the nearly $500 million Pennsylvania Game Fund. He feels farmers and foresters for decades have subsidized the Game Commission because wildlife, primarily deer, feed on their crops, and deer numbers drive hunting license sales for the agency.
“The ag community has done a poor job of talking about the historically unrecognized, and huge, ‘subsidy’ it provides the hunting community,” Stambaugh said. “And the Game Commission has no real incentive to address marauding wildlife because private landowners keep its bread-and-butter revenue source [deer] well fed and in the field. To me, fencing is a needed and effective option for farmers and foresters — and the Commonwealth — to pursue.”
House Bill 1007 recognizes that Pennsylvania ranks as one of the nation’s top states for crop damage directly tied to wildlife. Each deer consumes 2,000 pounds of plant matter annually. With many counties reporting more than 200 deer per square mile, this adds up to 10 million pounds of corn alone lost each year per county.
A recent Penn State University survey discovered 25 percent of farmers rated the level of wildlife damage to their crops as severe or very severe and 46 percent as moderate. Farmers estimated the economic value of damage caused by wildlife to six crops (corn grain, silage, alfalfa, soybeans, oats, and wheat) at greater than $70 million.
The bill would expire after the 2035-36 budget year (it could be extended if landowner demand remains strong), and participants would not be required to open their land for public hunting.
House Bill 1007 would set a $4 million first-year appropriation for the fencing program, then $2 million annually over the remaining years.
The legislation was referred to the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.
Representative Perry Stambaugh
86th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Jennifer Fitch
717-260-6563
jfitch@pahousegop.com
RepPerryStambaugh.com /
facebook.com/RepPerryStambaugh