PA Bear Season was 5th highest. See story below.

.Tioga man accused of sexually assaulting woman on a a bus….hit and run Saturday morning in Harrison Township investigated…details released about serious snowmobile accident Ulysses Townhip….Debit card stolen from car parked in Austin….State’s bear harvest 5th highest ever….

Tioga County

A Tioga PA resident is being charged with indecent assault for an incident allegedly taking place at around 8:30 AM January 14 in Tioga Township. Police claim the unidentified suspect assaulted at 22 year old Lawrenceville woman on a bus while traveling on a bus.

Elk County

DUI Charges are being filed against 32 year old Brett Fields of Brockport whose 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander was pulled over on Howard Road in Horton Township Christmas Eve afternoon.

Minor injuries were reported for a Kersey driver following a one-car accident last Friday in Fox Township, Elk County. According to Ridgway based state police, Stacie Smith was headed south on the old Kersey Road failed to make a right hand curve, went off the road and hit a traffic sign. Smith declined transport for treatment of minor injuries.

Potter County

A hit and run occurring Saturday at around 8:20 am on Hurlbert Hill Road in Harrison Township is being investigated by state police at Coudersport. The driver of an unknown Chevrolet fled the scene after the vehicle hit a Chevrolet Cheyenne driven by Michael Mesler of Harrison Valley after failing to make a curve when the vehicles met going in opposite directions.

A 36 year old Galeton man has been arrested for drug possession after patrol officers stopped his 2004 Mitsubishi on West Main Street in Galeton on the evening of December 16.

The theft of a debit card from  a car parked on Thorn Street in Austinbetween Januar4y 14 and 16 is being probed by state police at Coudersport. The Square UP card belonged to a 32 year old Austin woman while her 2020 Ford Fusion was parked in her driveway.

The driver of a 1999 Ford Ranchero is being charged with DUI after police found him passed out at the wheel on North Genesee Street in Genesee Township last Friday morning.

State police at Coudersport have just released details about a snowmobile accident on the afternoon of January 22 in Ulysses Township. Marlin West of Lykens PA was going north on the Losey Road when he fell off of his Ski-doo and struck an Arctic Cat operated by Lon Sholly of Milton, PA. West was life flighted to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre for treatment of serious head injuries.

Statewide

Pennsylvania bear hunters  took 3,659 bears across last year’s various seasons. That ranks as the state’s fifth-best harvest ever, and the second-largest recorded since 2011.The 2020 bear harvest, for comparison’s sake, was 3,621.The statewide regular bear season accounted for the largest part of the 2021 bear harvest. Hunters took 1,315 bears in that four-day hunt. The extended bear season – which last year for the first time allowed hunters to harvest bears throughout the opening weekend of deer season in some Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) – contributed 1,128 animals to the harvest. The archery bear season added another 680, while the muzzleloader/special firearms bear season harvest was 536.Pennsylvania hunters recorded their all-time best bear season in 2019, when they harvested 4,653. That was the third time since 2005 that the harvest topped 4,000 animals. The others were 2011 (4,350) and 2005 (4,162

A total of 215,219 people – 205,812 of them state residents – bought bear licenses in 2021. That was down slightly from 220,471 in 2020, but still the second-highest number of bear licenses ever sold in any one year. Sales totaled 202,043 in 2019, 174,869 in 2018 and, going back further, 147,728 in 2009.

Harvest report

Bears were taken in 59 of 67 counties and 22 of Pennsylvania’s 23 Wildlife Management Units in the 2021 seasons.

The largest bear reported is the 722-pound male taken with a shotgun in the extended season, on Dec. 4, in Letterkenny Township in Franklin County, by Wade Glessner, of Shippensburg.

The heaviest bear ever taken in Pennsylvania was an 875-pounder harvested in 2010 in Middle Smithfield Township, Pike County. Since 1992, seven black bears weighing at least 800 pounds have been lawfully harvested in Pennsylvania hunting seasons.

Other large bears from the 2021 bear seasons, all but one taken with a rifle, include: a 681-pound male taken with a bow in archery season in Newport Township, Luzerne County, by Neil Minnich of Nanticoke; a 676-pound male taken in the regular statewide season in West Franklin Township, Armstrong County, by Paul Skanderson, of Freeport; a 649-pound make taken in the extended season in Spring Township, Snyder County, by Ashton McIlroy, of McClure; a 640-pound male taken in the regular season in Pike Township, Clearfield County, by Brandon Knee, of Houtzdale; a 640-pound male taken in the extended season in Gamble Township, Lycoming County, by Matthew Aikey, of Trout Run; a 615-pound male taken in the extended season in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County, by Ryan Hausman, of Jim Thorpe; a 614-pound male taken in the extended season in Lehmen Township, Pike County, by Matthew Romig, of Bethlehem; a 605-pound male taken in the regular season in Bradford Township, Clearfield County, by Storm Bumbarger, of Woodland; and a 602-pound male taken in the regular season in Beech Creek Township, Clinton County, by Jacob Rembold, of Lock Haven.

Lycoming County gave up 212 bears to rank first among counties for bear harvest. Potter County ranked second with 180, Pike County third with 167, Tioga County fourth with 166 and Clinton County fifth with 156. Rounding out the top 10 were Bradford County (136), Sullivan County (127), Wayne County (120), Centre County (118), and Huntingdon County (115).

Final county harvests by region (with 2020 figures in parentheses) are:

Northwest – 451 (475): Warren, 87 (86); Venango, 81 (84); Jefferson, 72 (76); Clarion, 60 (59); Forest, 44 (61); Butler, 43 (42); Crawford, 38 (43); Erie, 13 (18); and Mercer, 8 (4).

Southwest – 247 (260): Armstrong, 58 (56); Somerset, 58 (70); Fayette, 49 (43); Westmoreland, 41 (32); Cambria, 19 (24); Indiana, 12 (30); Allegheny, 7 (3); and Greene, 3 (2).

Northcentral – 1,220 (1,310): Lycoming, 212 (186); Potter, 180 (188); Tioga, 166 (185); Clinton, 156 (150); Centre, 118 (117); McKean, 107 (87); Clearfield, 94 (158); Elk, 80 (140); Cameron, 68 (61); and Union, 39 (38).

Southcentral – 464 (419): Huntingdon, 115 (91); Bedford, 82 (82); Mifflin, 55 (30); Fulton, 47 (51); Perry, 42 (36); Blair, 39 (29); Juniata, 36 (35); Franklin, 17 (31); Snyder, 12 (20); Adams, 10 (7); Cumberland, 8 (6); and York, 1 (0).

Northeast – 1,121 (988): Pike, 167 (105); Bradford, 136 (108); Sullivan, 127 (71); Wayne, 120 (100); Luzerne, 111 (125); Carbon, 103 (97); Monroe, 95 (152); Susquehanna, 77 (54); Wyoming, 66 (42); Lackawanna, 62 (56); Columbia, 36 (53); Northumberland, 16 (22); and Montour, 5 (3).

Southeast – 156 (169): Schuylkill, 61 (78); Dauphin, 54 (37); Northampton, 13 (23); Berks, 12 (15); Lebanon, 8 (9); Lehigh, 6 (7); and Bucks, 2 (0).

The final bear harvests by Wildlife Management Unit (with final 2020 figures in parentheses) were:  WMU 1A, 26 (22); WMU 1B, 96 (121); WMU 2A, 5 (9); WMU 2B, 10 (6); WMU 2C, 192 (176); WMU 2D, 206 (191); WMU 2E, 45 (75); WMU 2F, 245 (277); WMU 2G, 519 (628); WMU 2H, 90 (141); WMU 3A, 238 (199); WMU 3B, 403 (273); WMU 3C, 218 (170); WMU 3D, 426 (409); WMU 4A, 173 (177); WMU 4B, 121 (113); WMU 4C, 224 (228); WMU 4D, 300 (236); WMU 4E, 97 (135); WMU 5A, 14 (13); WMU 5

The  state Health Department reports the number of deaths in Pennsylvania now totals 40,581, up 18. Deaths  in the Black Forest Broadcasting Service area  to date are mostly  holding steady.

Cameron 18

Elk 84                                                                                                                       

McKean 124

Potter 86

Tioga 184

Cattaraugus County in NY state has  205 total deaths reported.  Allegany County has  held steady at 142 total deaths .