

and Game Conservation 
ity of putting over this proposition, I, 
through my representatives, secured 
that portion of our property lying be- 
tween the wild-life refuges so as to 
keep it out of commercial development 
and handled it in the only manner pos- 
sible for perpetuating it in its wild 
state and as a wild-life sanctuary. 
The birds are today slaughtered in 
great quantities, at all seasons (by the 
natives, who rely on them largely for 
their meat supply), owing to lack of 
adequate protection. The state of Lou- 
isiana will never have sufficient funds 
to adequately protect this vast area of 
wild, inaccessible lands. 
It is this condition which I am try- 
ing to remedy by the organization of 
the Louisiana Gulf Coast Club to take 
over this tract and change it from an 
unpoliced, unregulated, open public 
slaughter ground to a carefully pro- 
tected tract of land which will be 
an additional sanctuary during nine 
months of the year and a closely re- 
stricted shooting ground during the re- 
maining three months. 
Because of the tremendous expense 
involved, the membership must be both 
expensive and large. No other means 
of obtaining the necessary funds ex- 
ists. The membership will consist, 
however, of men in practically every 
state in the Union and, as the housing 
accommodations in both clubhouse and 
cottages will not exceed three hundred 
members, it is not to be expected that 
more than one hundred or one hun- 
dred and fifty gunners will be on the 
grounds hunting at any one time. The 
membership fee, while high, is by no 
means high enough to confine member- 
ship to rich men. There are a large 
number of clubs whose fees are from 
five to fifteen times as great. There 
will doubtless be rich men in the club, 
but there will be many who are not 
rich at all. 
Not only will every member neces- 
sarily be required to obey every game 
law of the state of Louisiana, but to 
obey as well, on pain of expulsion, club 
rules which will be much more restric- 
tive. For instance: The club proposes 
to restrict its members to a limit of 
twenty ducks a day (the legal limit is 
25), and to restrict those who use au- 
tomatic and pump guns to handling 
them in such a way that only two shots 
can be fired without reloading. 
Furthermore, no shooting will be 
permitted within one-half mile.of the 
present sanctuaries, and a strip of land 
two miles wide, running from one sanc- 
tuary to the other, will be maintained 
as a closed hunting ground, thus af- 
fording the game a travel lane of abso- 
lute safety which they will quickly 
come to know and use. Also, every- 
thing that can be done will be done to 
help the birds increase. 
It is my belief, therefore, that, al- 
though a private club, the Louisiana 
Gulf Coast Club will prove to be a 
great asset to the cause of conserva- 
tion. It will, as I have said, turn an 
unprotected, greatly shot-over tract of 
land, where there is now little or no 
effort to stop the constant violation of 
the state game laws and Migratory 
Bird Law, and where there is in con- 
sequence enormous destruction of game, 
into an absolute sanctuary (of over 
102,000 acres) during nine months of 
the year. The amount of game killed 
during the remaining three months will 
not exceed 150,000 birds, which will be 
less than a bird and a half to the acre, 
and, as the club proposes to plant 
60,000 acres of its land in food for wild 
life, and, as an acre of well-planted 
land will feed 1,000 birds, the number 
of birds killed by the club will be only 
a very small part of those they protect 
and provide with food. 
All conservationists and duck hunt- 
ers know that if the wild fowl are shot 
excessively they will leave the club 
grounds and go to the sanctuaries, and 
those that do come back, attracted by 
the food, will come only at night when 
they cannot be shot. 
The Louisiana Gulf Coast Club is, 
of course, much more than a hunting 
club. It is a winter-resort club planned 
on very broad lines, and for the plea- 
sure of women and children as well as 
men. Golf, tennis, riding, sea bathing, 
boating and salt- and fresh-water fish- 
ing will together command more of the 
time and attention of the members 
present on any day than will the 
hunting. 
The basic idea of this club is twofold 
—conservation and the creation of a 
place where men may come themselves 
and bring or send their families for a 
happy, healthful vacation. Hunting is 
only a part of it and a small part, and 
will be so strictly and conscientiously 
regulated as to do no harm. Life in 
the open will be the great attraction at 
this club, without the society features 
of the cities or such resorts as Palm 
Beach. 
E. A. McILHENNY. 
SSS SSS ss SS SSS SS 
Sr RR 
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