Thanksgiving Day is a traditional time when we get together with family and friends, sit around the dining room table feasting on roast turkey and all the trimmings and then retire to the living room to watch football games or just spend time enjoying each other’s company. But it is also a time to reflect on what we should be thankful for in our everyday lives.
As sportsmen, whether you participate in hunting, fishing, shooting, camping, hiking, photography, bird watching or “all of the above,” we are truly blessed with amazing opportunities here within our home state and the northern tier counties in particular.

Within our state’s borders, there is an excess of 1.5 million acres in our State Game Lands system that are managed specifically to improve and maintain habitat for all wildlife and provide hunting, trapping and fishing opportunities. A percentage of hunting license fees has paid for these State Game Lands and is thus available for our use. These SGL’s vary in size from several hundreds of acres to almost 50,000 acres. Two crown jewels lie in our own backyard. Consisting of 49,528 acres (that is over 77 square miles!) SGL 335 rest in Sullivan County in the Sonestown area and SGL 75, with 27,505 acres extends throughout Lycoming County and is centered around English Center. The sum of the acreage of our SGL’s is 2 ½ times greater than the total acreage of the state of Rhode Island and larger than the entire state of Delaware!

Additionally, our State Forest lands total over 2.2 million acres and are also open to hunting, fishing and trapping. Tioga State Forest, in Tioga County, consists of 160,000 acres. Further, 97 of our 121 State Parks are open to hunting, fishing and trapping. Combining all of our SGL’s, State Forest and State Parks acreage open to these sports equals a size greater than the entire state of Connecticut, and slightly less than the entire state of New Jersey!

Here, in our home state of Pennsylvania, we have available for hunting grouse, pheasants, turkeys, squirrels, and cottontail rabbits. Big game includes whitetail deer, black bear and elk. Additional hunting is open to foxes, coyotes and bobcats. All of these small game and big game species, as well as the predators, are found throughout our northern tier counties.

If fishing is your preference, enjoyment can be found throughout all of these SGL’s, State Forests and State Parks. Sunfish, Perch, Bass, Walleyes, Northern Pike and Trout can be located in our rivers, creeks, feeder streams, ponds and lakes. I do not mention any specific locations as I do not want to raise the hackles of fellow fishermen who often cherish the locations of their favorite fishing holes!

Here in Pennsylvania, we are blessed with the four seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. It is something we really don’t give much consideration to, but I recall living in California for a while and although the weather was beautiful – every day was sunny with clear blue skies – it became routine and a bit mundane after months of the same thing. Here, the change of seasons brings with it new opportunities.

Native spring flowers bloom as many forest birds and animals give birth to their young as gentle spring rains bring blossoms and fresh growth to trees and plants. Summer weather allows us to enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities that abound in our backyards and surrounding areas. The greatest amount of fishing is undertaken throughout the summer months. Crisp fall air signals the beginning of the hunting seasons and days in the fields and woods in pursuit of our favorite game animals and birds. As the year draws to a close, winter snows enable us to enjoy more hiking, outdoor photography, and, for those who will brave the winter weather, even more and yet varied hunting, fishing and trapping opportunities.

Yes, Pennsylvanians have much to be thankful for – the huge amount of land available to us where we can enjoy our sports, the wide selection of fish and game we can pursue and the ever-changing seasons that allow a variety of opportunities in our great outdoors.

I hope you will take some time, not just on Thanksgiving Day, but over the holiday period, to sit back, relax and reflect on how fortunate each of us is to have all of these things at our fingertips and be thankful for the bounties of the outdoors that surround us.