State Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, has been named Legislator of the Year by the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen & Conservationists, Inc.

The award was presented Sept. 10 at the Pitcairn-Monroeville Sportsmen’s Club of the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League.

The sportsmen group picked Brewster for the award because of his work on legislation to allow hunting on three select Sundays of the year and other work, said Harold Daub, executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen.

“Sen. Brewster is a great man,” he said. “I don’t want to pigeonhole him for Sunday hunting. He’s a bridge between the Republican and Democratic parties for hunters and conservation issues.”

There are few state legislators who identify themselves as hunters today, Daub said.

“Brewster has experience in providing education on conservation efforts to those who have no background in it,” he said.

A longtime hunter and angler, Brewster has been a member for nine years and is minority chair of the state Senate Game and Fisheries Committee.

“I was surprised and flattered to receive the award,” he said.

Brewster credits others in the Legislature for the passage of legislation allowing hunting on three Sundays a year.

“You have to find a way to maneuver through the system to get a bill passed,” he said. “This bill was not going to be intrusive, and it was non-political. It was something we did together.”

Brewster said he is proud of the work of the Game and Fisheries Committee in getting more people to learn about natural resources in the state, providing an opportunity, especially valuable during the pandemic, for residents “to get out there and have a place to enjoy themselves.”

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