11 



I would recommend that the Committee in its deliberations con- 

 sider this along with — I understand there is going to be a rec- 

 ommendation for a task force to look into this. I would endorse 

 both of those solutions and would be happy to respond to any ques- 

 tions the Committee may have. 



[The statement of Mr. Schulze may be found at end of hearing.] 



The Chairman. Dick, to my understanding, there would be three 

 notices if the field had been baited prior to the hunting taking 

 place. 



Mr. Schulze. If there is a baiting situation, and the area is 

 going to be used for hunting — yes. There are a lot of people who 

 feed ducks and geese on the Eastern Shore and do not allow any 

 hunting on their property. They would not have to worry about a 

 thing. But if I have a commercial hunting operation, or I lease it 

 to a guy who runs a commercial hunting operation, he would be re- 

 sponsible for doing it. You know, sometimes, people put 10 or 20 

 bushels of corn out in a river, in a pond, in a creek, in front of a 

 blind. And if they do that, say, 30 days before they are going to 

 shoot if that is what the regulation is, they just put on this form 

 that on such and such a date, they put 10 or 20 or 30 bushels of 

 corn out in this area, and if a hunter comes into that blind 30 or 

 31 or 32 or 33 days later, he knows that this area was baited, but 

 it certainly should be clean in 30 days. 



The Chairman. Under the present regulations, it says by baiting. 

 Baiting means the placement, exposing, depositing, distributing of 

 shelled, shucked or unshucked wheat or grain, salt or other feed as 

 to constitute to such birds a lure, attraction or enticement or over 

 any areas where hunters are attempted to take them. The baited 

 area means any areas where shelled, shucked or unshucked corn, 

 wheat or other grains, salt or other foods, whatever, capable of lur- 

 ing, attracting or enticing such birds is directly or indirectly placed. 

 The way it reads now, indirectly means if I harvested, and my har- 

 vester was a bad harvesting machine, Fish and Wildlife could, in 

 fact, interpret that as a baited field. Where would your forms come 

 in then? 



Mr. Schulze. If it is in normal, agricultural practices, you should 

 spell that out, and a judge will be able to determine. 



Now, we all know that sometimes, they leave an extra row or so 

 forth for the ducks or the geese, and if that is normal agricultural 

 practice on the Eastern Shore, then that should be acceptable, nor- 

 mal agricultural practice. 



The Chairman. OK. 



Mr. Schulze. But I think that is something that you could clar- 

 ify in this test program or have the game and fisheries people rec- 

 ommend. Even the distance, if there is a blind a half mile away, 

 and you are feeding over at this place, if that is too far, then, if 

 you inform the conservation officer, then it is their obligation ahead 

 of time to come up and say, now, wait a minute, you know, you 

 cannot hunt that blind, because you are feeding over here. So, they 

 have an obligation instead of sitting there — and I know this does 

 not happen all the time, but there are instances where the game 

 officers might lurk behind the blind early in the morning in the 

 dark and then wait until the shooting begins and then, come out. 



