{"id":274890,"date":"2026-08-29T22:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T22:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274890\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T22:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T22:56:22","slug":"pennsylvania-fish-and-boat-commission-ending-volunteer-deputy-program-after-more-than-a-century-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274890\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission ending volunteer deputy program after more than a century"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than a century, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is axing their volunteer deputy program across the commonwealth.<\/p>\n

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is ending its volunteer deputy program after more than a century, leaving 36 deputies across the Commonwealth without their positions \u2014 including one Lancaster County man who has served for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

The program will officially end Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

For Dave Eichler, the decision marks the end of a 40-year career as a volunteer deputy. He first joined the program in 1985 after a friend he knew through the Boy Scouts suggested he become a deputy.<\/p>\n


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\u201cI didn’t know it was going to come to this. I’m saddened. I’m going through all the phases of loss,\u201d Eichler said.<\/p>\n

Volunteer deputies assist the PFBC\u2019s full-time waterways conservation officers with duties related to fishing and boating enforcement.<\/p>\n

For Eichler, that work has included interacting with anglers and boaters, helping during trout stockings and providing traffic control when crowds gather near stocking locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts more than just being with a boat or being with a trout stocking truck, it’s also traffic control,\u201d Eichler said. \u201cOftentimes there’s a parade of cars of interested people that follow the stocking truck to the streams, and it’s up to the officers to do the traffic control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eichler said the deputies were not given much explanation when they were notified of the decision.<\/p>\n

The commission said ending the program is part of the \u201cnatural evolution of modern conservation law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change will also affect how coverage is handled in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n

Without Eichler, the full-time officer he assists will be responsible for roughly 500 square miles of the county alone.<\/p>\n

For Eichler, the end of the program means saying goodbye to the people and waterways that have been part of his life for more than four decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll miss most is the interaction with the public, with the angling and the boating public,\u201d Eichler said. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss that. A lot of people out here know me.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the program ending Sept. 1, Eichler is spending his final days on the water as a PFBC volunteer deputy before hanging up his badge for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than a century, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is axing their volunteer deputy program across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-274890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}