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law enforcement agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service. These 

 devoted men and women are merely enforcing rules in a book whose 

 pages have yellowed with time. My criticism is directed at the 

 regulations. It has been argued that officer discretion can 

 minimize the number of citations issued. However, if we must 

 rely upon officer discretion to compensate for a law that is 

 outdated, then it is time to change the law. I am confident that 

 we can continue to protect the waterfowl resource we treasure 

 without imposing restrictions that discourage the protection and 

 management of valucible waterfowl habitats by well-meaning 

 sportsmen and women. 



Creating reasonable lures and attractants for waterfowl is an 

 integral part of waterfowl management and in and of itself is not 

 baiting. It is my belief that today's prohibition of baiting was 

 primarily intended to prevent people from hunting over areas 

 where com, wheat or other grain crops were deposited in 

 "unnatural" quantities to attract waterfowl. In the years just 

 prior to the imposition of federal baiting restrictions, Illinois 

 duck clubs were putting out an estimated 6 million bushels of 

 corn per season. In central Illinois, some clubs were putting 

 out as much as 430 bushels of com per acre each fall. I think 

 most waterfowl hunters would agree with me that depositing food 

 in such quantities or in areas where it was not grown is and 

 should be prohibited. Again, I am not , as some have suggested, 

 an advocate for baiting. If I believed for one minute that mowing 

 natural vegetation created an unnaturally attractive condition 

 for waterfowl I would not support it . I ds advocate changing the 

 law to clarify which practices are truly baiting and which are 

 not. We need consistency, clarity and common sense. 



It has been suggested that mowing natural wetland vegetation with 

 developed seed creates the same kind of attraction as dumping 

 bushels of corn, wheat or other grain. I do not agree. Nor do 

 the waterfowl and wetland experts I have consulted. My good 

 friend Dr. Prank Bellrose is author of many publications on 

 waterfowl including the classic book "Ducks, Geese, and Swans of 

 North America". Dr. Bellrose is recognized world-wide as a 

 pioneer in waterfowl research. In his long career as a waterfowl 

 scientist, he tells me he has seen no evidence to suggest that 

 mowing moist-soil plants will increase waterfowl harvest. He 

 believes that mowing openings around hunting blinds is a sound 

 practice that aids in attracting ducks and retrieving downed 



