Hunters used to have two weeks to hunt buck, followed by three days to hunt doe with a rifle. About three years ago, the Pennsylvania Game Commission combined the two-week buck and doe hunting season because of overpopulation. Now, hunters say that's a problem.

Hundreds of concerned hunters held a meeting in Cambria County to figure out how to tackle the declining deer population. They say there are no longer enough doe in the woods to reproduce and action needs to be taken fast.

Richard Lauren, the hunter in charge of Wednesday's meeting says, "We've got to start writing to our legislators, to the Game Commission to tell them we want the doe hunting stopped."

Lauren says hunting should be stopped completely in 2005, then slowly brought back in the years to come, giving the deer population time to grow. At the meeting, the group also talked about getting hunters to unite statewide and refuse to buy deer licenses, or even buy the licenses and burn them, but some say that's not the way to go.

A hunter, Stephen Shesko, says, "I think it's up to the Pennsylvania Game Commission to do what needs to be done to make sure there are deer in the future for the next generation and bring the young one's along to hunt."

West Virginia has already closed deer hunting for 2005 and hundreds of Pennsylvania hunters hope to follow that lead. However, the Pennsylvania Game Commission says on their website they don't have concrete evidence yet that the deer population has declined. They won't make any decisions about hunting season until an April meeting.