At 07:54 AM 7/11/96 -0700, Don wrote:
>
>There was recently an NRA-pushed bill belching about the dark underbelly
>of Congress that would make new refuge acquisitions open to hunting by
>default ......(snip)

........It went nowhere, but led to an interesting press conference earlier this
>week by Babbitt, publisizing a list of refuges which have been acquired
>in recent years and formally opened to hunting and fishing by the USF&W
>this week (during appropriate seasons, of course!). Babbitt touted
>the fact that the Clinton administration had opened more refuges in
>its partial term of office than Bush had in his entire four years,....(snip)

What really stuns me is their insistence upon calling these areas "refuges".
Refuges for whom? The hunters?

In my opinion, ODF&W does a wonderful job at keeping the geese well fed on
the "refuges". So they planted lots of yummy crops in open areas to
"provide feed through the winter." Hey, what better way to attract your
prey than to feed it?

Their success was so good, in fact, that last year they lengthened the duck
hunting season to 90 days and added a second goose season. Amazingly, the
extra goose season was added at Labor Day so all the hunters could take
advantage of the recreational boaters as practice targets.

My "anything for a buck" theory is once again substantiated by fact.

Peggi



Peggi Rodgers
Oregon Research Institute
Eugene, OR
peggir at ori.org
prodgers at efn.org
"A bird does not sing because it has an
answer, It sings because it has a song"