ABOUT PFBC
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission provides the public with opportunities to enjoy some of the best recreational fishing and boating in the United States. This is possible because the Commonwealth’s aquatic resources are rich and diverse. Remarkably, there are more than 86,000 miles of streams in Pennsylvania, 45,000 waterways, and nearly 4,000 lakes, ponds and reservoirs.
PFBC staff are staunch advocates for species protection and clean water; these are essential for high-quality recreational angling and boating.
Indeed, PFBC’s staff believe in the philosophy that the natural resources of the Commonwealth belong to the public, a notion that goes back to William Penn’s founding of the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681. As John Arway puts it, the PFBC "holds our natural resources in public trust for our anglers, boaters, and conservationists, as well as for the general public and the many generations to come."
Of course, fishing and boating are traditions that stretch back a long way. Native Americans, William Penn’s early migrants, colonists, nineteenth- and early- twentieth- century immigrants, workers in urban industrial Pennsylvania, suburbanites in the post-World War II era, environmental activists in the 1960s and 1970s, and today’s residents have engaged in fishing and boating for both sustenance and leisure.
Where and why did today’s PFBC begin? It is a complicated story that doesn’t follow an easy trajectory. It is a history that emerges from the confluence of the abuse of natural resources and responses to such exploitation, the interests of the conservation and environmental movements, collaboration among like-minded natural resource proponents, economics, education, and reactive and proactive public policy. To better understand this convergence, it is important to look to the agency’s origins and its evolution in its span of time since its beginning in 1866.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s Mission:
"To protect, conserve, and enhance the Commonwealth’s aquatic resources and provide fishing and boating opportunities."
BE PREPARED. BE CONFIDENT. BE NOT AFRAID.
The bottom line is paddling is more fun when you know what to expect on the water and what to do if something goes wrong.