Pa. Board of Game Commissioners meeting in Westmoreland County next week

The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners is coming to Westmoreland County next week.

The agency announced the board will meet Sept. 10 and 11 at the agency’s Southwest Region Office off Route 711 in Fairfield Township.

The meeting on Friday, Sept. 10 begins at 2 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is for the board to hear reports from staff, according to agency spokesman Travis Lau.

Public comment will not be accepted at this meeting.

Public comment — limited to five minutes — will be accepted at the Saturday, Sept. 11, meeting on a first-to-register, first-to-speak basis. Registration begins when doors open at 7:45 a.m. The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m.

Following the conclusion of public comment, the board will take up its regular agenda, then discuss new business, Lau said.

The agenda for the September meeting is available at the game commission’s website, www.pgc.pa.gov. Under “About Us,” on the right side of the commission’s homepage, those interested can select “Events & Board Meetings” and then click the “agenda” link.

Among items on the agenda is the commission’s proposal to remove the peregrine falcon from the Commonwealth’s list of threatened birds, reclassifying its status as protected.

The commissioners gave preliminary approval to the listing change in July and will consider the proposal for final adoption at its meeting next week.

Pennsylvania’s population of nesting peregrine falcons has continued to increase since the commission upgraded the species’ status from endangered to threatened in 2019 and, with that recovery, the objectives established in the agency’s peregrine management plan have been achieved.

The commission has been accepting public comments about the proposed change and comments will be accepted via email through Sunday. Comments may be submitted by email to peregrine@pa.gov.

The game commission’s Southwest Region Office is located at 4820 Route 711, near Bolivar. The office is located about 8 miles north of Ligonier.

Residents unable to attend the meeting can watch much of it from home, according to Lau.

The meeting is scheduled to be livestreamed Friday and again on Saturday, following the conclusion of public comment. The livestream can be viewed on the agency’s YouTube channel.