If we overlook the declining deer harvests of the past few years, we still see that western Pennsylvania is still a great place for deer hunting -- at least on a comparative basis.

Between the Northwest Region and the Southwest Region, there's a great variety of deer-hunting options with plenty of public land.

For several years, the Southwest Region has been the hot corner of Pennsylvania deer hunting, even though some area residents still prefer to head north into the traditional highlands for deer season.

Last fall, some parts of the Southwest Region were affected by epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). Not to be confused with chronic wasting disease (CWD), EHD is a somewhat rare invader, carried north into Pennsylvania by windblown insects.

This disease will not persist here because it cannot survive our cold winters. Areas affected by EHD can be expected to rebound quickly.

"Greene and Washington counties, which have had real high deer harvest over the past four or five years, have come down some," said Barry Zaffuto, the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Southwest Region land management supervisor.

"Deer on State Game Lands No. 302 were hit by EHD, and other areas were also affected, so the deer numbers are down. As the 2008 hunting season begins, hunters might want to avoid SGL No. 302. But give it a year, and you probably won't notice the difference.

"Deer may suffer high mortality through disease in one area, and yet in the next run over, there's no effect." Hunters, Zaffuto said, "were able to make their adjustments in the affected areas of Green and Washington counties."

Even with some mortality from EHD, that area still is one of the better places in Pennsylvania to hunt deer. Visiting hunters may want to avoid Washington and Greene counties, but locals who have time to scout and who know where there were problems last year should have no problems finding deer.

STATE GAME LANDS NO. 223
Last fall, one state game lands that attracted the attention of hunters was SGL No. 223.

"Hunter satisfaction seemed to be fairly good," Zaffuto observed, "because they were seeing deer. But hunting pressure was higher than it would have been in a normal year.

"The PGC deputies that I was with in those areas believe that mostly private lands were hit by EHD. Those people were looking for different areas to hunt and so, they were spending more time on the game lands."

SGL No. 223 lies along both sides of the Enlow Fork of Wheeling Creek. Terrain and habitat are a mix of creek bottom, steep hillsides and deep gullies dropping into the creek.

"State Game Lands 223 is characteristic of Greene County, which is all up-and-down terrain," Zaffuto said. "There isn't much level land here.

"The game lands here are big, but in weird configurations. They have thousands of acres, but they cover several townships.

"One game lands of 10,000 acres may be spread over six townships -- which is good for hunting."

That's a pretty good description of SGL No. 223, which sprawls all over the southeastern corner of Green County. Get inside a large block of land between Interstate Route 79, state routes 21 and 88 and the West Virginia border, and you'll be close to at least some of SGL No. 223.