HARRISBURG -- State Rep. Rod Wilt disagrees with Pennsylvania Game Commission officials over the best way to provide oversight of the agency's land-use policies for 1.4 million acres of public gamelands.

Wilt, Sugar Grove Township, R-17th District, is a co-sponsor of legislation to require outside review of regulations governing activities of non-hunters on state gamelands.

Wilt says he hopes outside review will bring about consistent enforcement of rules for visitors to gamelands, but the commission opposes the legislation on grounds it will infringe on its authority to manage gamelands. The bill is generating a considerable amount of debate with sportsmen's and recreational organizations.

The House Tourism and Recreational Development Committee held a public hearing on the bill Wednesday which Wilt attended. The hearing came just one day after the commission gave preliminary approval to a new set of rules regarding such activities as motor bike and horseback riding on trails and large groups of visitors on game lands.

The rule drawing the most attention is one that allows the commission to designate trails for motor bike rider and horseback riders to use and restrict that use to Sundays during the main hunting seasons, says commission spokesman Jerry Feaser. This rule seeks to prevent situations where a turkey hunter hiding in the brush loses his quarry because a group of mountain bikers has startled game in the area. A final vote on the rules is set for April.

The legislation before the House would give the Independent Regulatory Review Commission control over the gameland rules as they apply specifically to non-hunters.

Wilt says there is no intent to give the commission authority to review rules that pertain specifically to hunting, such as the setting of dates for hunting seasons and bag limits.

The lawmaker says his main concern is ending a situation where non-hunters are allowed to do different things on gamelands depending upon what part of the state they live in.

"I think the problem that exists right now is in different parts of the state you have different levels of enforcement," he adds. "Right now it's up to the wildlife conservation officer in each area as to what is enforced and what isn't."

A flashpoint in the debate is over whether passage of the legislation will jeopardize $6.8 million in federal funds that go annually to the game commission as part of a wildlife restoration program.

The commission has released a letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying the legislation would impose undue restrictions on the game commission's ability to administer wildlife programs and make the state ineligible for the program.

But Rep. Merle Phillips, R-Northumberland, an influential lawmaker on game issues, says he doesn't understand how the wildlife service can reach that conclusion after reading the bill.

Furthermore, Phillips said he questions the reliability of correspondence from the service. He contends the agency is still run by holdovers from the Clinton administration and is the subject of a critical audit from the federal General Accounting Office.

Whatever happens with the oversight bill in the House, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

"Sen. (Ed) Helfrick is not inclined to support the measure," says Todd Roup, director of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee which Helfrick, R-Northumberland, chairs.

Helfrick says the gamelands fall in a unique category of public lands because they are managed with revenues from hunting license sales.