Vo 1. 17 , No. 10 
Page 2 
suitable compromise between conflicting viewpoints. As regards the zoning 
concept, we found that ( 1 ) according to a demonstrated high number of hunter 
trips taken by hunters in the south zone in August, the delayed opening of the 
squirrel season does reduce the total season hunting pressure in northern 
Illinois. Hunter interest in the state is highest from mid-August until mid- 
October. Thus, the present seasons give the southern hunter 8-9 weeks and the 
northern hunter 6 weeks of prime hunting time. And (2) the small scattered 
tracts of forest available to the northern hunter are potentially vulnerable 
to overshooting. The 1 August opening in the south zone places the most sus¬ 
tained hunting pressure in the more extensive forests of southern Illinois, 
where squirrel populations are least likely to be overshot. 
However, we do believe that the Department should consider changing a 
portion of the zone line in order to include a few more counties in the 
southern zone. We be 1ieve that hunters in the west-central Illinois counties 
could enjoy an additional month of squirrel hunting without damage to the 
squirrel population. We propose that west or Springfield in Sangamon County, 
the zone line be shifted northward, using State Routes 97 and I 36 as new zone 
boundaries. This zone change would put all r, r parts of the following counties 
in the south zone: Adams, Cass, Brown, Schuyler, the northern portions of 
Scott, Pike, and Morgan counties, the western portions of Mason, Menard, and 
Sangamon counties, and the southern portions of Fulton, Hancock, and McDonough 
counties. Several of these counties contain more forest land (squirrel habitat) 
than many of the counties now included in the south zone. Schuyler (21.1 percent 
forested), Fulton (I 5.8 percent forested), Cass ( 13.5 percent forested), and 
Brown (19*4 percent forested) counties all contain more forest land than Shelby 
(12.5 percent forested). Coles ( 6.3 percent forested), and Douglas ( 1.7 percent 
forested) counties, which are now in the southern hunting zone. 
jj e -. s P onses P ra * r ' e Chickens to Habi tat Man i pulat ion R. l. Westemeier, 
D. R. Vance 
The demise of prairie chickens on private farmland in Illinois has been a 
direct result of the increasing intensity of cash-grain farming. The differences 
between today's agriculture and that of 35 years ago are startling. Fortunately, 
the early work of the late Dr. Ralph E. Yeatter and Charles S. Spooner, Jr., 
allows us to compare the farm practices and prairie chicken populations of 1939 
with those of 1974 . 
Yeatter's booming ground census of the 2,760-acre Hunt study area in 
Jasper County (10 miles northeast of the Bogota area) revealed 1 3 1 cocks in 
the spring of 1939* Continued censuses on the area documented the gradual 
disappearance of prairie chickens. No prairie chickens have been seen here 
since the observation of a single pai, in K;o8. 
. Spooner cover-mapped the Hunt area in 19?9> providing us with valuable 
information on the habitat that produced that year's peak population of 
