Harness requirement on state game lands

Start to talk about tree stand safety, and the need to wear a safety harness when hunting from one, and hunters’ eyes glaze. Oh, they’ve heard it all and have a litany of excuses: I don’t need a harness when I’m in a ladder stand, the tether strap could interfere with my shot, I’m only going to be out for about an hour, my stands aren’t very high, I build my own stands using treated lumber.

It reminds me of the vintage auto seat belt commercials, where folks would say something like “it’s too confining” and the next film footage would show them in variously-positioned body casts.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Game Commission proposed making safety harnesses mandatory for every hunter using an elevated stand on state game lands. The proposal is championed by Michael Mitrick, York, one of the PGC’s Game Commissioners.

“Every year I hear about 2 or 3 instances in my area,” Mitrick said. The PGC added a segment on tree stand safety to the Hunter Safety Course in 1999. “The younger hunters have had the hunter safety course – it’s the older hunters, who weren’t required to take the course, who aren’t getting the message.”

Mitrick referred to an extensive study done by Dr. Joseph Smith, who works in the intensive care unit for Geisinger Medical Center. Smith delved into records kept from 1987-2015 by the Pennsylvania Trauma System Foundation, which kept statistics on incidents involving falls from tree stands.

Keep in mind, the study only included reports of incidents that involved trips to a hospital, and Smith only used statistics from falls that occurred during hunting seasons, including the day before a season.

Yikes! During those 19 years, there were more than 1,200 cases. Smith broke down the numbers, finding that 52 percent of the incidents involved structural issues with the stand, 24 percent occurred as hunters were entering or leaving the stand, and 10 percent happened when hunters fell asleep. In 25 percent of the cases, hunters suffered a permanent disability. The average height of the fall was 17 feet, and 97 percent of the time the fall involved a male hunter; 82 percent of them were archery hunting.

The important thing to remember is that these hunters would not have hit the ground had they been wearing a safety harness tethered to the tree; in fact, more than 90 percent of them were not wearing a safety harness. Another important consideration is that many of the falls happen as the hunters move from steps to a stand, or stand to steps. There is equipment now that works like a seat belt strap, installed at the stand and stretching to the ground, so that the hunter can be attached to the tree when climbing or descending.

“It (harness requirement) will be talked about at our next meeting, and I’m really hoping to get it through, and I hope that DCNR follows suit,” Mitrick said. “Tree stands are sold with safety harness included, and falls are very serious, and very preventable.”

ON ANOTHER NOTE ... Perhaps the PGC should outfit game wardens with field breathalyzer tests. According to the statistics from Dr. Smith’s study, the degree of inebriation of hunters who fell from stands was disturbing, to say the least. Of those who fell, 46 percent of them were legally inebriated; 40 percent of them had marijuana in their systems.