The Wrangell sentinel., 1946-01-25
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE

There's a rumor (only rumor mind you, but so disturbing a rum or that we hope it is nipped in the bud in the rumor stage) that Stikine Flat is to be made a mi gratory bird refuge. This would mean an end of hunting on the flats.
 Dame Rumor continues to ex- plain that in as much as Stikine flats is the only resting place for white geese between the Arctic and the states. the Wndlife Sery- ice feels that they should be pro- tected to laze around and feed be- fore taking off for the states
 We can't agree with our good and respected friend Dr. Ira Cab rielson-if he is the one responsi- ble for the rumored idea. He has been to Wrangell He knows it's population, and the population of Juneau, Petersburg and Ketchikan and he knows, too, the small per centage of that population which goes hunting on Stik ne flats All the ducks, geese anu mud hens taken off the flats in a season wouldn't compare with one days shooting of some of the single clubs in the states For example. out of three days shooting last fall by four ardent hunters we know, exactly six white geese were brought into town. Out of the literally thousands seen by the hunters (and stalked without sue cess this in an infinitesimal sum.
 The Wildlife Service knows as well as we do the aggravating hab- it's of the goose. While the hunter shiVers and shakes in the cold be- hind a blind. the wise old goose swims serenely around just out of. gun shot and we've often suspect ed their conversation, aimed at Us over the too far distance, of being along the same lines as we mean when We refer to someone as silly as a goose.'. One thing we'll bet whoever authored that saying was definitely not a hunter of white geese.
 Wrangell has always boasted of the greatest bird hunting spots in the greatest bird hunting sots in the north It is. The hunting s superb. It's the catching that's sometimes tough. We don't deny of an instant that at the right time, and in the right place there are instances in which you can get your limit of geese in sone- lining less than nothing flat, butt it's like every other kind of game, sometimes they're there and some times they're not But the pitiful- ly small number of hunter who pursue them over on the flats couldn't even make a dent in the thousands which land there. The white geese come in about October 10 and are gone before the last of the month. That doesn't give much time to deplete them to any ex- tent.
 Stikine flats is one of Wran- gell's greatest assets and to make bL o iCIuSG IL SeelllS to Us would gain no purpose but to deprive the few hunters who go there the fun of hunting. Men who go there are mostly business men who take a week end off and go over hoping to get their bag limit and return to the old grind Monday. Gener- ally, too, it is their only hunt for birds there during the season.
 Dame Rumor's argument that the flats must be preserved as resting place" for the white geese before they rev up their pin feathers for the trip south to us sounds like a misconception Of fact. One thing we know. we never saw a tired-lokking white goose on the flats. At least they seemed to have more pep and alertness after their thousand mile flight from the Arctic than the ordinary hunter after almost jumping one slough. Perhaps it was because they had all week to rest in while the ordinary hunter around these parts was working, taking only a week end to give the geese a uit- tie wing workout, which the said
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