HARRISBURG – Glenn Andrew Batson, of Coudersport, Potter County, recently pled guilty to killing an osprey, a state threatened species, at the Rainbow Paradise Trout Farm in Coudersport, according to Pennsylvania Game Commission officials. On June 20, Batson was ordered by District Judge Annette Easton to pay a fine and replacement costs totaling $3,000. He also faces the loss of his hunting and trapping privileges for up to three years.
On April 24, Batson, an employee at the trout farm, was witnessed shooting the osprey with a .22-250 rifle because the bird had been preying on trout. An individual, who has stopped by the farm to take photos of the birds, was shocked when he heard a gun shot and watched as one of a pair of osprey fell to the ground.
After contacting the Game Commission Northcentral Region Office, Wildlife Conservation Officers Mark Fair and William Ragosta, of Potter County, and WCO Thomas Sabolcik, of McKean County, promptly followed up on the information provided by the informant. The officers were able to retrieve sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute the case.
“Protection of wildlife is one of the primary missions of the Game Commission,” said WCO Fair. “To do our jobs effectively, we rely on individual’s to assist us by providing information on cases, such as this. Through the timely and detailed information provided, we were able to see justice served in this case.”
Ospreys, also known as “fish hawks,” are large eagle-like hawks. They are primarily fish-eaters and, in areas of good habitat, can be seen diving from the sky into the water to catch prey. They currently are listed as a “threatened species” in Pennsylvania, but in recent years they have made considerable progress on their road to recovery. Their population, like other birds of prey, was devastated by the widespread use of the now-banned pesticide DDT.
The Game Commission, in cooperation with East Stroudsburg University, Wild Resources Conservation Fund and local Audubon Society chapters, worked to restore ospreys to the Commonwealth in the early 1980s through a pioneering hacking program, similar to the one used to fuel Pennsylvania’s bald eagle recovery. The first Pennsylvania-hacked osprey returned in 1983, and two years later the state documented its first nesting pair since 1910. Additional reintroduction efforts were sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Tioga-Hammond Dams in Tioga County, by the Moraine Preservation Fund at Moraine State Park in Butler County, and by Juniata College and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Raystown, Huntingdon County.
In 1998, ospreys were down-listed from endangered to threatened in response to the success of these programs. As of 2004, at least 65 pairs of ospreys nest were documented in 17 counties in the state. Due to budget cuts, osprey nest monitoring was discontinued in 2005 and 2006.
“Ospreys are still a fragile species in our state,” said Tony Ross, Game Commission Northcentral Region Wildlife Management supervisor. “They’ve made considerable gains, but there’s still plenty of unoccupied habitat waiting for ospreys to use. Until they move into these areas, we’ll continue to consider these birds a species of special concern.”