2 TH Ey A’UrD: U0 B*O'N BU title Pare ie 
horned owl, and the Cooper’s hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, and goshawk are 
the only ones not so protected. Indiana, Connecticut, and Michigan all have 
taken this step since 1949, Michigan having waged a particularly good cam- 
paign with the help of the sportsmen. It is believed Illinois should have a 
law similar to Michigan’s, in which farmers and others are permitted to 
control hawks and owls on their own land if seen committing real damage 
to domestic animals (except that the bald eagle is protected under all cir- 
cumstances). One reason for needing such a law is that too few persons can 
tell the difference between the various hawk and owl species, and do not 
know the protected from the unprotected. 
Bob Carey, representing the Outdoor Writers’ Association and a prime 
mover in the current campaign to “take the Conservation Department out 
of politics,’’ explained the bill that has tentatively been drawn up to accom- 
plish this. It is similar to the bill introduced in several sessions of the legis- 
lature by the Illinois Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, and defeated each 
time. As Mr. Carey explained, the Illinois Conservation Department has as 
good career men as will be found anywhere, but they are obliged to take 
time out in their jobs to do favors for the “right people,” whatever party is 
in office. This plan would create a 6-man commission, with staggered 6-year 
terms, not more than three from any one party, to be appointed by the 
governor; the commission would appoint a conservation director answerable 
to the commission. The commissioners would be paid only for expenses, not 
a salary. Thus sorely-needed, long-term policies would be possible in the de- 
partment, Carey said. The field men would not change. He showed a chart 
of the organization as it would be under the new proposal, compared with 
the present. Nearly 40 states have gone to some form of bipartisan plan, 
he said, and none has returned to the old system, indicating the bipartisan 
plan works. 
Leonard Schwartz, Conservation Department Director in the Stevenson 
administration, addressed the delegates on the need for more conservation 
in the state. The bipartisan idea, he asserted, is a good political idea, for it 
gets the governor and others “off the hook’; they can refer requests for 
favors, etc. to the commission. Mr. Schwartz stressed that organization is 
needed to pass such a bill. If all interested organizations get together behind 
it, there will be no stopping them, he predicted. 
George Baird, past president of the Illinois Federation of Sportsmen’s 
Clubs, told of that group’s fight to get such a bill passed since 1936. He and 
others of his organization said they believed the fact that the federation 
alone sponsored the bill worked to their detriment; that with concerted back- 
ing of many widely diversified groups it would have a much better chance. 
He advised that if and when the new bill gets far enough to come up for a 
hearing, that interested organizations send delegates to Springfield. 
These two subjects were among many discussed at the meeting. Mr. Baird 
also talked on the Wolf Lake “steal,” a proposal to put an elevated highway 
across Wolf lake (on the Illinois-Indiana line at Chicago’s edge) and ex- 
cavate in the lake for fill, thus threatening ruin of the Illinois State Park 
dedicated there after much effort by the sportsmen. This has been done with- 
out the consent, advice, or knowledge of the Conservation Department, Mr. 
Baird said. E-c pointed to this as an example of the idea that the easiest way 
