202 Game Survey of the North Central States 



(8) The slow spread of action on the refuge idea. 



(9) The non-co-operative attitude of many States in waterfowl administra- 

 tion. 



(10) The absence of comprehensive surveys and plans for waterfowl con- 

 servation programs. 



Restoration Projects. The deliberate and purposeful restoration of im- 

 portant waterfowl areas unwisely drained in the past has been talked about for 

 many years. It is therefore gratifying that at least a few such projects are actually 

 being executed. 



Wisconsin seems to have overcome a long series of legal obstacles for the 

 restoration of Horicon Marsh, and has appropriated $25,000 for the necessary 

 engineering works and $25,000 per year for land adjustments and acquisition. 

 The first dam is under construction, but further legal difficulties may yet develop. 



Minnesota, in co-operation with the U. S. Biological Survey, has a well- 

 advanced plan for the restoration of Mud and Thief Lakes as a Federal refuge 

 and as a State public shooting ground respectively. 



Indiana has acquired a nucleus of land in the Old English Lake, one of the 

 three units of the former Kankakee Marshes, with a view to restoration as a State 

 reTuge. Acquisition has also started on another area in Jasper County, which is 

 to be reflooded. 



These projects collectively do not as yet counterbalance to any appreciable 

 degree the decline in the waterfowl resources, but if they are greatly multiplied 

 they hold out the hope that such may soon be the case. A dozen or two projects 

 of this kind, duly completed within the region, would constitute a material gain 

 against the inroads of drainage and depletion. 



Food Restoration; Comeback of Koshkonong. It is common knowl- 

 edge that Lake Koshkonong in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, was formerly one of 

 the best canvasback lakes in the United States. In the early days local market 

 hunters shipped a consignment of 600 canvasbacks to New York City, as a result 

 of which the word went abroad that Wisconsin had a canvasback lake. Many 

 sportsmen from as far away as New York City came to shoot on Koshkonong. 

 It appears that previous to this time eastern sportsmen believed that canvasbacks 

 occurred only in the region of Chesapeake Bay, and did not stop in inland waters. 



Many shooting clubs were formed, and became nationally known, including 

 the Thibeaux Club and the Blackhawk Club. 



I was not able to determine the date when carp were introduced, but local 

 sportsmen say that the duck food plants and hence the shooting began to fall off 

 about 1898, and for many years the lake was considered as hopeless. Clyde 

 Terrell visited the lake in 1920 or 1921 and found it totally bare of feed. Soon 

 after that date intensive seining for carp was carried out each year. Evidences of 

 a "comeback" both in aquatic vegetation and in waterfowl were soon apparent. At 

 the present time extensive beds of sago pondweed (P. pectinatus) are re-estab- 

 lished, together with scirpus, wild millet, and giant wild rice. The shooting has 



