PFBC Activity Report Highlights for Second Quarter 2009 Bureau of Administration Fishing License Point-of-Sale (POS): As of June 15, 2009, we have successfully sold over 730,708 licenses and 558,062 permits, which is a 5% increase from 2008 levels. These season sales indicate that over 76 percent of our license buyer’s fish for trout. During the week of Opening Day, April 18, 2009, the Commission sold over 122,503 licenses and 111,196 permits with 61,753 licenses sold on the Friday preceding opening day alone. Voucher Program: The PFBC has sold 9,537 (2009) vouchers resulting in 1,184 new customers to Pennsylvania Automated Licensing Service (PALS) that redeemed a voucher during 2009. Also, fishing license customers have donated $5,126.71 already this year, through PALS, as additional support for our programs. PALS: Bureau of Administration staff continue to work with the Pennsylvania Game (PGC) staff and Automated License Systems (ALS), headquartered in Nashville, TN. ALS is the PFBC’s selected vendor for developing, implementing, and managing the PALS. ALS is in the process of developing the system requirements for implementing the Outdoor Shop on PALS, which will include all internet fishing licenses, vouchers, boat registrations, launch permits and merchandising. This long term project is expected to take at least another year before the PALS system is completely implemented. Beginning June 15, hunting and furtaker licenses for the PGC 2009-10 license year were available for purchase through PALS. AG Audit: Our Licensing and IT staff have also completed the final License Returns Audit for the Auditor General’s Office. This audit covered 2005, 2006, and 2007, the final 3 years of our paper licensing system. With the advent of the PALS system, this will be the last time this type of audit will need to be performed. Special Permits: The 2009 Charter Boat/Fishing Guide Permit program currently has 312 resident and 48 non-resident active guides. Staff have completed automating the process for transferring Charter Boat/Fishing Guide data to the PFBC website. To date, there are 824 cast net permits and 139 regulated lakes permits. The PFBC has issued 3,012 One-Year Launch Permits and 7,665 Two-Year Launch Permits. Boat Registration and Titling: Boat registration and titling transaction activity increased by 3.70% this quarter. Registration renewal transactions increased by 4 %, while new registrations increased by 1.29%, while new titles decreased by 10.56%. Boat Registration & Titling Transactions Transactions - 2009 Transactions - 2008 Registration Renewal 130,644 124,786 Registration Transfer 4,102 3,851 Registration New 9,068 9,487 Title New 5,520 6,370 Title Transfer 4,291 3,847 Total Active Boat Registrations 153,625 148,341 Financial Summary & Budget: As of May 31, 2009, fiscal year 08-09 non-restricted Fish Fund revenues were roughly 10 percent, or $3,721,599, lower than fiscal 07-08 and Boat Fund revenues are down by 2 percent, or $234,828, over last year. Overall, Fish Fund expenditures were 9 percent more than fiscal year 07-08 and Boat Fund expenditures were down 8 percent over last year. Boat Fund expenditures 1 PFBC Activity Report – Second Quarter 2009 decreased due to a delay in the call for projects in the Boating Facility Grant Program. Fish Fund and Boat Fund revenues and expenditures are consistent with the approved levels in the 08-09 budget. Administration staff submitted the Commission’s 2009-10 re-budget request to the Governor’s Budget Office. Federal Assistance: Staff monitored and managed 61 existing Federal grants, which includes the State Wildlife Grants, and applied for and received funding for five additional grant awards exceeding $12.59 million. Staff also worked with other key Commission staff on new grant opportunities and to facilitate the preparation and submission of new grant applications and required reports for existing grants. The PFBC receives roughly $12.5 million annually in federal assistance from a number of federal agencies State Wildlife Grant (SWG) Program: Staff is currently coordinating and managing 31 federal State Wildlife Grants (SWG) valued at a little over $9.8 million, and 24 third-party cooperative agreements issued to various program partners. During the quarter, the Commission received $243,997.50 in federal funding under this program. The PFBC received the 2009 Federal apportionment from the USFWS for the SWG program, which was $947,047.00. These funds will be used to fund the nine projects approved for funding by the Executive Director last July, and to fund the continuation of a number of current SWG projects. IT Section: The network staff performed a key role at the recent NEAFWA Conference held in Lancaster. Staff was responsible for organizing, scheduling, and maintaining all computers and projectors used at the conference. Network staff completed efforts to connect the Walnut Creek Marina to the Commonwealth network. Security cameras installed at the Marina were connected to the system and are viewable by Boating Access and Law Enforcement personnel in both live and recorded mode. GIS Development Efforts: Web GIS and related projects have continued to be updated and refined over the past 3 months. There are currently 8 public interactive GIS-based maps running via the PFBC web site, as well as 2 others that serve more internal or interagency purposes. GIS staff also continue to maintain data behind the maps, as well as related stocking list web pages for trout and warmwater/coolwater species and the online PFBC Calendar, which are updated as close to real-time as possible. Starting on April 21st, the PFBC began tracking usage of the aforementioned web pages. From April 21 to June 15, the pages were viewed almost 750,000 times with visitors coming from all 50 states and 65 countries on 6 continents. During the height of the trout stocking schedule in April and May, the pages were receiving close to 40,000 hits per day. GIS staff produced numerous maps and completed various analyses in support of various agency programs, as well as many external data requests. Some of the more notable projects included: mapping and analysis related to potential drawdowns at Pymatuning Sanctuary; GPS surveys and related mapping for the Erie Easement Acquisition Program; digitizing of property boundaries and generation of requested calculations to DGS; update of a timber rattlesnake database and related GIS layers to include the 147 assessments completed in 2008; and maps for inclusion in the final PA Fishing and Boating Access Plan. GIS staff produced an online interactive map that provides for the review of Conservation Planning Polygons being developed through a State Wildlife Grant (SWG) project with the Game Commission and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Another grant project “Building Field-Based GIS Functionality and Data Sharing Capabilities for Assessing Pennsylvania’s Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles and other Aquatic Life” - was also completed. The main result of the latter project is publicly available PFBC GIS data is now available through the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (FAR) Node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure. The Node is heavily used by agencies and organizations similar to the PFBC across the country. Harrisburg HQ Building Expansion: Construction was completed in early May. Office furniture was delivered and installed by May 15. Staff moves were staged to allow for minimum disruption of operations and were completed by May 29. The project was completed on time and within budget. 2 PFBC Activity Report – Second Quarter 2009 Automotive: Applications Development staff have worked with the PFBC Automotive Liaison to combine several different automotive applications into a single, more comprehensive system to improve automobile and maintenance tracking and meet the Department of General Services revised reporting requirements. Human Resource Division: Recruitment and placement activity continues to be minimal due to the state- wide hiring freeze. We have selected a new HR Director and we are in the process of obtaining final approvals from the Governor’s Office of Administration. In addition, we received an exception to the hiring freeze to fill our Information Technology Generalist Administrator II vacancy; the posting closed on June 10th. We received 43 applications and are in the process of reviewing the materials to determine candidate eligibility. On June 19th, staff will travel to Stackhouse to conduct DWCO Orientation and on July 20th for WCOT Orientation. No additional activity has occurred with the negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP); however, their legal representative contacted the Office of Administration, Bureau of Labor Relations via letter dated May 29 and advised that they are ready to resume negotiations. Contact was initiated by OA/BLR; however, no dates have been established at this point. Procurement Section: The liquid oxygen contract expired May 31, 2009 and the Department of General Services has issued a new contract beginning June 1, 2009. The new contract will expire May 31, 2014. The selected new vendor is Air Products. Due to the selection of the new vendor, we are in the process of removing the prior vendor’s oxygen tanks and installing and connecting the new vendor oxygen tanks, which is approximately 80% complete. The transition for this process proved to be a challenge, but has gone smoothly and we are pleased with the new vendor so far. Bureau of Boating and Access Boating Fatalities: There have been four fatal recreational boating accidents with five fatalities to date in 2009. Aids to Navigation: There have been six new floating structure permits reviewed and approved and 12 renewed. Run of the River Dams: The Commission inspects run of the river dams throughout the Commonwealth for proper markings and signage. This year the NE region has 18 dams to inspect and the SE has 130 dams to inspect.