Department of Natural Resources waterfowl honchos think they may have to close the Central Zone goose season before its Jan. 29 deadline as the quota of 12,500 looms earlier than expected. As of Thursday, 9,880 geese were killed in the Central Zone.
– Ever wonder what life goes on in the strips and pockets of virgin woods and prairie beneath those bridges over the Des Plaines River beside the I&M Canal? Cook County Forest Preserve District naturalist Barry Laga discourses on “Wildlife Along the Canal” at the Heritage Corridor Visitors Center at Archer and Willow Springs roads in Willow Springs at 2:30 p.m. next Sunday. Laga will emphasize Chicago’s burgeoning deer and coyote populations. . . . The I&M Canal Civic Center Authority also plans a Jan. 31 eagle-watching “Winter Adventure” beginning at Starved Rock State Park visitors center in Utica and continuing to the Illinois Waterway Museum. The day includes an annual meeting of Friends of the I&M Canal. Call 708-352-4110.
– Outdoor broadcaster Chip Porter, soon to be a full-fledged Great Lakes captain, is booking “high-end” fishing charters for the coming season, specializing in small groups and unique trophy hunts. He also will open a custom boat-rigging busines that, believe it or not, makes house calls. Incidentally, Porter’s hot new video, “Great Lakes Fishing Made Easy,” is selling briskly. He already has set shooting dates for a sequel on advanced techniques for king salmon.
– Rich Welchans has been appointed acting chief at Kickapoo State Park after the apparent murder of site superintendent Brian Plawer in a bombing outside his church in Oakwood. Plawer, 46, previously had worked at Hennepin Canal State Park and Hidden Springs State Forest. The bombing remains under investigation.
– The game wardens’ blotter: Four Antioch men collected 18 tickets and their shotguns were seized when they were caught shooting geese behind a home long after legal hours. . . . When conservation cops stopped a fellow carrying two teal and three wood ducks near a waterfowling area in Carroll County, they informed him the limit on wood ducks was only two and he said, by golly, he didn’t know where the third one had come from, but they didn’t believe him and arranged for a better explanation in court. . . . When two guys were seen “casting” to a dead goose on a private lake near Hanna City, a game warden checked their blind and, behold, found two other geese–all shot out of season. Could their rod and reel have been a giveaway? . . . Cops seized two shotguns, a pistol and a scoped .30-06 rifle from a group of poachers, including two persons evidently hunting from a combine in the middle of a grain field. The pistol was tucked into the waistband of a 14-year-old boy. Two rabbits and three pheasant–including a pair of hens–had been taken out of season.
– Looking for a place to hunt gamebirds? A list of 50 public Illinois clubs and hunting preserves is available from the Illinois Association of Hunting Preserves at Box 141, Dundee, Ill., 60118. Most offer pheasant, quail and partridge, but others also have turkey, mallards and sporting clays. Many have intriguing clubhouse restaurants. Some offer shooting instruction.
– This ‘n’ that: Michelle Fitch, the teenage fishing pro, has moved with her family from Tinley Park to Cedarburg, Wis., where her father, Mike, has a new job. . . . The Illinois DNR has a couple of $1,200 slots left for a nationally televised celebrity bird hunt at Heartland Lodge in Pike County on Feb. 7-8. Proceeds benefit the Sportsmen Against Hunger campaign. Call 217-782-4963. . . . The first steering committee meeting for the next Conservation Congress takes place Feb. 3 in Springfield. Top item is to set a date for the next Congress, probably in September 2000. . . . DNR constituent liaisons Brenda Potts and Bob Castile hope to have the DNR’s responses to last September’s Congress actions in the hands of delegates by the end of March. . . . A total of 115 paddlers participated in the annual New Year’s Day canoe trip in balmy weather on the North Branch of the Chicago River. . . . Volo Bog State Natural Area near Ingleside hosts its annual Winterfest next Sunday, followed by a marsh walk, featuring animal tracking, on Jan. 24. Call 815-344-1294. . . . Pinnacle has entered the virtually untapped ultra-light baitcasting reel market with a quality version of its Vision series. . . . Free snowmobile safety classes are slated thrice monthly through February at Lockwood Park in Rockford (815-987-8874).
– Thursday is the final day for southern upland, statewide archery deer, and general trapping seasons. The annual handgun deer season in 30 counties runs Friday through next Sunday.
– Grants from the Illinois Habitat Stamp Fund included a $64,860 purchase of 47 acres adjacent to Wildcat Hollow State Forest near Effingham and a $39,330 acquisition of 40 acres beside Carlyle Lake Wildlife Management Area. Quail Unlimited was given $144,000 to provide cash incentives to landowners for planting wildlife-friendly grasses on Conservation Reserve lands. The DNR kept $58,000 to buy seeds, shrubs and other commodities for its Acres for Wildlife Program.
– Hordes of sportsmen who cross the Illinois River at Havana are being warned the bridge there–the only bridge between Pekin and Beardstown–will be closed between March 2 and late July. In its place, 24-hour ferry service will be instituted, but huge delays are expected.
