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B5£4W 



mi TED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUBE 

 BUREAU OF' BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 



Wildlife Research and Management Leaflet BS-93 



Washington, D. C- * April 1937 



THE CONTROLLED HUNTING AREAS MP THE PHEASMT REFUGE- ^AAlTAC-BvIBTT SYSTBi 



IN NORTHWESTEElf OHI O 



By Lawrence E. Hicks, Biologist, Section of Wildlife Surveys, Division of 

 Wildlife Research, and Director of the Ohio Wildlife Research Station l/ 



Introduction 



pheasant management, a^ developed in the study conducted in northwestern 

 Ohio, involves two phases — production and harvest. Production problems are 

 disposed of "by the Ohio pheasant refuge-management system,, and the harvest prob- 

 lems by various modifications of the Wood,Cour.ty cont rolled-hunting system.. The 

 two systems — production and harvest — exist and function well separately, but 

 becaase of their interdependence they reach their maximum efficiency when oper- 

 ated simultaneously on the same areas. 



This report is not of a proposed or theoretical management-production 

 plan, but of managem-ent systems now in operation and carefully tested over 

 periods exceeding five years. The one best test of any management plan is 

 whether it actually rjucceeds, and at a cost less than that of other existing 

 methods. The present plan survives this test as it (a) produces pheasants ^j 

 natural propagation at a small fraction of artificial propagation costs; (b) 

 makes possible an average take of 50 to 80 cock birds per square mile; (c) pro- 

 duces surplus birds for stocking purposes, of which more than 2,000 have been 

 live- trapped in a single winter at low cost on a single refuge; (d) provides 

 good hunting for more sportsmen, not less; (e) involves participation of the 

 landowner in both the production (management) and the harvest of the crop; and 

 (f ) provides an orderly harvesting system without abuses, which safeguards the 

 crop and creates ideal sportsmen-landowner relationships. 



- J7 



presented, as a condensation of about 400 pages of more complete reports 

 at the Second North American Wildlife Conference, St. Louis, Mo., March 4, 1937. 



