HARRISBURG - A settlement between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Ladnar and Wiconisco coal companies to allow deep mining of anthracite coal on State Game Lands 264 in Schuylkill and Dauphin counties was announced by the PGC board of game commissioners at Tuesday's quarterly meeting held at agency headquarters.
The three leases, including one of approximately 60 acres on the Schuylkill-Dauphin border, are part of a negotiated settlement agreement that resolves a long-standing legal dispute of approximately 15 years concerning ownership of more than 8,000 acres of mineral interests underlying and adjoining SGL 264.
Under terms of the new lease, the coal companies will pay royalties to the PGC for 15 years with an opportunity to extend the agreement an additional 10 years if active mining is taking place at the time of the renewal.
Royalty payments are to be made at 5.5 percent of the current F.O.B. pit price, which is projected to be between $60-80 for a minimum of 200 tons per month or $2 per ton, whichever is the greater amount. Rentals and royalties owed the PGC will first be debited from an existing $298,880 royalty credit.
In other board action, the members agreed, following their May public working-group meeting, to continue with the recently initiated predator-impact study. Commissioner Jay Delaney proposed and called on PGC staff to undertake a study of predator impacts that would build upon the agency's Fawn Survival Study conducted in 2000 and 2001 and published in 2004.
Referencing a recently published national article by Quality Deer Management Association biologist and Pennsylvania native Kip Adams that explores predation on fawns by coyotes, bears and other predators, Delaney said the time is right for updated research. Since the Fawn Survival Study was completed, both the coyote and bear populations have increased and their range has increased in Pennsylvania.
New for the 2014-15 hunting seasons is that the regulation to compile and display a roster for parties hunting big game is no longer in effect. The regulation that limits parties hunting big game to a maximum of 25 participants is maintained.
This was the first meeting in which Rich Palmer served in his new position of deputy executive director, a post that has been vacant since January when Matt Hough was promoted to executive director. Palmer, who most recently was director of the Bureau of Wildlife Protection, has worked for the PGC since 1991.
Palmer joined the PGC as an undercover officer in its special investigations unit and then served as a wildlife conservation officer in Huntingdon and Perry counties. He subsequently held positions as law enforcement training supervisor and chief of the Bureau of Wildlife Protection's research and development division and training director prior to becoming director of the Bureau of Wildlife Protection in 2007.