Mr. DOWNING. I think Mr. Pelly's suggestion is timely. Mr. Kastenmeier and previous witnesses have stated that you intend to cut the goose limit to 14,000 this year. Is that correct?

Mr. GOTTSCHALK. No, not specifically, and if I may, I would like to discuss another aspect of this total national waterfowl picture, which is more specifically oriented to the Mississippi Valley, and which involves this question of goose regulation in the State of Wisconsin.

Let me start by saying that the Mississippi Valley goose flock historically has been one of the great waterfowl phenomena of our country. Unfortunately, several years ago, that is to say, approximately two decades ago, by virtue of what we now are convinced was excessive shooting of this flock, it had been reduced to something less than 50,000 birds. We know from general reports that at one time it had been much greater than this.

The rather deteriorated status of this flock prompted a very serious look at the conservation measures needed to bring it back to a point where it could achieve something more nearly its optimum contribution to waterfowl shooting in the Mississippi Valley.

This project involved not only the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, but the concerned States all the way from Wisconsin to Louisiana.

Many ideas were suggested and tried, and ultimately it was concluded that, along with the provision of additional habitat to take the place of that which had disappeared through the development of our landscape, it would be necessary to establish more rigorous control over shooting, the principal problem areas being at that time in southern Illinois at a place called Horseshoe Lake.

The State of Illinois was willing to cooperate, and we began a program of reducing the kill, with the full cooperation of the Mississippi Flyway Council, but approximately 10 years ago we began to recognize that a phenomenon which is commonly called "shortstopping" in the waterfowl trade was occurring at our Horicon National Wildlife Refuge.

This refuge had been acquired in the early 1940's under then prevailing concepts. It consists of approximately 33,000 acres, of which roughly one-third is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Conservation Department, and the other 20,000 by our Bureau.

When this area was acquired, no additional land, other than the marsh itself, was bought. There was no peripheral ground which might be used for the production of feed crops.

The geese didn't know that Uncle Sam's boundary stopped here, and with protection they began to concentrate at Horicon in increasingly large numbers, but feeding not on the refuge, where there was little food except that of a natural type, but rather on the surrounding cornfields, and a very difficult problem began to develop with depredations.

A part of the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge was opened to hunting. Under the law not more than 40 percent may be opened, but this does not solve the problem. The entire area of the State's part of the Horicon marsh was opened. Still the birds came in. They had protection. They had free corn, free from their standpoint, and I

guess ours.