The pheasant refuge management system makes possible a phea,sant 

 yield sufficiently large to warrant the establishment of fe, contrclled- 

 hunting system. This system, in turn^ helps to insure the permanency of 

 the pheasant crop and to develop the farmer- sportsmen relationships upop 

 which the crop in no small part depends. liither system can oe developed 

 and function separately, but the most striking results and the greatest 

 pheasant yields have been obtained where the two systems have functioned 

 side by side. 



The Wood County Control l ed-Hun . ting S ystem 



The Wood County cont rolled-hunting system began its development in 

 1930 as a defense against trespassing abuses during the hunting season. 

 The following notice to hunters was_ issued by the Plain Church G-::^me' Protective 

 Association of Wood County: 



As the hunting season gipT)roaches, th3 anzi^ty of land- 

 owners increases. It is a deplorable an.d well-known fact 

 that many who are otherwise law-abiding citizens become 

 outlaws when out hunting. They kill our qii^.ail , hen pheasants, 

 poultry, and sometimes our livestock, de3-;.ioy our fences,' 

 and utterly disregard the gajae laws by trespassing upon our 

 land without permission. Since these laws are so flagrantly 

 violated by so many unscrupulous hunters, therefore, we, as 

 farmers have met and organized ourselves into an association^ 



In spite of their common complaint against trespassing abuses and 

 their common desire to end them, organization difficulties might have pre- 

 vented any cooperative solution had it not been that the township was a 

 natural unit, that is, the majority of the residents of each tovmshi.p at- 

 tended the same township school, ch^orch, grange, or lodge. H'-^nce, the 

 social fa.ctor was important, individual differences of opinion being sub* 

 merged in the cooperative plan so that to remain outside m.jsnt a degree of 

 social ostracism. The first real association, the Plain Church Game Pro- 

 tective Association, succeeded because of an additional comm^anity objective, 

 the raising of money to pay off a mortgage and build a/ new chuxch. ." _ 



The development of these associations has been carefully followed 

 from the beginning, and during the past year a project of tne Ohio Wildlife 

 Research Station has included a careful survey of each association, with a 

 tabulation of some 140 points about each, followed oy an individual "analysis 

 and evaluation. It has been an unusual opportunity to obser'/e this big 

 out-door experiment, with contrasting systems developing side by side. 

 Features 'that have proved desirable or undesirable have been carjfully a-nalyzai 

 as to Why did it work? or Why did it fail to work? As the years have passed 

 the set-up for the associations has tended toward standardization oy borrowing 

 the best features of the most successful. 



No two associations have the same regulations but the general set-up 

 is about as follows: 



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