268 Game Survey of the North Central States 



ship enterprise to which the landholder, the sportsman, and the public each 

 contribute appropriate services, and from which each derive appropriate 

 rewards. 



This is regarded as the crux of the game problem in the region. Not one of 

 the eight states has as yet extended any positive recognition to the farmer. The 

 laws requiring the farmer's permission to hunt constitute a negative recognition 

 of his right to regulate trespass, but positive recognition that he furnishes the land 

 for the game enterprise, and that its success depends on the condition of that land, 

 is as yet totally lacking. The Indiana woodlot tax law may be construed as an 

 indirect (and doubtless unintentional) premium on well-conditioned game lands. 



Recognition of the landholder entails such a complete reconstruction of our 

 game policy that only a few of the necessary steps can be predicted with confidence. 

 One is to withdraw the official pressure against posting, and against private ven- 

 tures in upland game management, and substitute for it a policy of licensing, regu- 

 lating, and guiding private practice, as distinguished from the present policy of 

 discouraging all private initiative in upland game. This holds good whether pri- 

 vate initiative takes the form of clubs, toll farms, preserves, cooperative farm-pools, 

 or other forms as yet untried. The guiding idea should be to supplement private 

 ventures by a generous public land program, rather than discourage them and do 

 nothing. 



3. Experiment to determine in each state the merits and demerits of 

 various ways of bringing the three parties into productive relationship with 

 each other. Encourage the adoption of all ways which promise to result in 

 game management. Let the alternative ways compete for the use of the land, 

 subjecting them to public regulation if this becomes necessary. 



Michigan is the only state in this region yet embarked on the process of ex- 

 perimentation to develop practicable mechanisms for encouraging private initiative 

 by or in cooperation with the farmer. Her "Williamston Plan" is trying out one 

 form of sportsman-farmer pool; her "Shooting Preserve Statute" is trying out one 

 form of private preserve. 



One knotty problem, as yet unsolved, is how to reward private initiative in 

 states where shooting seasons have been so shortened as to hold out insufficient in- 

 ducement. The Michigan plan of preferential seasons for managed areas may not 

 prove acceptable to the public. Some state should try the other alternative of 

 closing all territory which cannot stand up under a reasonable season. This might 

 prove a powerful spur to action. 



Some state should experiment in regulating practice on private migratory bird 

 lands. This logically falls to Illinois, but a strong and technically-minded Depart- 

 ment would be a pre-requisite. 



Some state should try state-leased public shooting grounds on farm lands to 

 determine their practicability. 



