Illinois Public Land Hunting

Management of Illinois’ public lands has come a long way in the last century.          

Prior to the creation of the Illinois Department of Conservation in 1925, conservation activities were managed within the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The newly created DOC consisted of six divisions established to manage conservation issues at that time: Game Management, Fisheries, Forestry, Law Enforcement, Education and Parks and Memorials. The Division of Game Management was responsible for establishing wildlife refuges and providing areas for public hunting opportunity—a new beginning for resource management in Illinois.          

In 1937, the Pitman-Robertson Act was enacted and provided funding from a 10 percent excise tax on firearms and 11 percent excise tax on ammunition. The Wildlife Restoration Program, resulting from this act, provided dedicated funding for land acquisition, wildlife habitat development and wildlife research.          

Fast forward to 1951, the year I was born, when the agency had 11 public hunting sites in place (Watefowl hunting sites: Anderson Lake Public Hunting Grounds, Batchtown PHG, Rice Lake Wildlife Refuge, Sanganois PHG, Sparland PHG, Woodford Co. PHG; Pheasant and rabbit sites: Chain O Lakes Wildlife Area, Des Plaines Public Shooting Area, Green River Wildlife Refuge, Iroquois WR, Belle Rive Public Shooting Area), with a total of about 25,000 acres. Ten sites, some of which were partially hunted, were established as refuges (Green River Wildlife Refuge, Chain O Lakes WR, Iroquois Co. WR, Sparland WR, Woodford Co. WR, Rice Lake WR, Sanganois WR, Horseshoe Lake Goose Refuge, Mermet WR, Union Co. WR). The wildlife harvest that year was 3,058 waterfowl and 14,165 pheasant (from the put-and-take pheasant program). Although deer hunting had not yet reopened in Illinois, in just six more years (1957) the first modern-day deer season would be established. In 1951, deer activity had been documented in 68 counties, and deer were being trapped and released in counties lacking a confirmed population. We’ve come a long way.          

It’s now 2012 and things have certainly changed.          

First, the agency is now the Department of Natural Resources. Many of the changes within DNR are a direct result of recommendations provided in the publication—The Crisis of Wildlife Habitat in Illinois—Illinois Wildlife Habitat Commission Report: 1984-85.          

Developed by a blue-ribbon panel of 16 members, the commission included some of the brightest minds in Illinois regarding environmental and resource management issues facing the state, including university professors, wildlife biologists and professional natural resource administrators. The group defined the status of wildlife habitat and proposed solutions to habitat problems in Illinois. Among the recommendations were the need to aggressively institute a program to acquire additional public land for wildlife habitat, and ensure all lands in public ownership—at federal, state or local levels—and those owned by publicly licensed companies (such as power companies) be managed for their maximum wildlife potential.          

Today, as a result of those proposals and other recommendations in the report, Illinois has 199 owned, leased or managed public hunting sites that total 467,553 acres. In the 2010-11 season, nearly 173,000 units of wildlife were harvested on Illinois public lands including wild turkey, white-tailed deer, duck, goose, mourning dove, bobwhite quail, pheasant, rabbit and several other species of wildlife. More than 250,000 hunter trips were documented during this period.          

Illinois wildlife biologists and public lands staff routinely use harvest and hunter-use data in determining wildlife management strategies on various public lands throughout the state. For this reason, it is critical that hunters properly report their harvest and use days when using public land sites. The Illinois Public Hunting Areas Report is widely used by many DNR constituents.
       
When you look at what has happened in 60 short years, yes, we’ve come a long way.

Paul Willms is the DNR project manager and wildlife biologist for the statewide public lands wildlife habitat development project (federal aid project W-76-D) within the Division of Wildlife Resources and can be reached at (672) 283-3070 or paul.willms@illinois.gov.

By: Paul Willms