Corn ponds and duck patterns

[Mfowl]

Maybe a legal beagle on here could chime in but can you outlaw a practice on private land but allow it on public?  Arent there lots of Quality hunt areas that are public and that flood with grain on them?  Should that opportunity be done away with?

If you're referring to the quality hunt program, those are private lands made accessible to the public. They are also a result of regular agricultural practices and not manipulated for the purpose of hunting. The only place I have been that might apply is some federal land in the Columbia Basin. I'm not sure that it is actually grain they plant there.

[hunterednate]

Maybe a legal beagle on here could chime in but can you outlaw a practice on private land but allow it on public?  Arent there lots of Quality hunt areas that are public and that flood with grain on them?  Should that opportunity be done away with?

I would support banning the practice of flooding crops for the purpose of waterfowl hunting on both private and public land. The limited "habitat plots" on public land can't compete with the corn pond complexes anyway, so doing away with both will almost certainly improve public hunting opportunity.

But I think mfowl's right - what's happening on public land right now falls in line with normal agricultural practice, for the most part. Which, by the way, would still be permissible on the private corn pond complexes - they'd just have to harvest the corn before they flood it. Still plenty of waste grain to attract birds, but probably won't hold thousands of birds for months on end like the current corn ponds.

Private guys still get phenomenal shooting, but more ducks using public land overall would hopefully be the result.

[Bucks2Ducks]

Maybe a legal beagle on here could chime in but can you outlaw a practice on private land but allow it on public?  Arent there lots of Quality hunt areas that are public and that flood with grain on them?  Should that opportunity be done away with?

If you're referring to the quality hunt program, those are private lands made accessible to the public. They are also a result of regular agricultural practices and not manipulated for the purpose of hunting. The only place I have been that might apply is some federal land in the Columbia Basin. I'm not sure that it is actually grain they plant there.

Yeah the state does have pieces on the west side as well, in which they leave corn and barley up for the birds. Sometimes its naturally flooded too. "Manipulated for the purpose of hunting" in my opinion, would be a nightmare to enforce.