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Troy (and anyone else who is interested): The story you tell about the mules is the only one I have heard. The Jackass Bend CBC was compiled by Chris Hobbs. The circle covered both sides of the Missouri River. It is my belief that it was drawn to include the proposed Jackass Bend W.M.A. once it was developed, but I don't think the oxbow was covered very well on the count. The circle included the Excelsior Springs sewage lagoons on the north and a small part of 24 Hiway on the south. My party's territory covered the southern part of the circle, which included the Atherton Bottoms and Courtney Union School Road west to M-291. We got Lapland Longspurs in the bottoms most years, Snow Bunting one year and Prairie Falcon 2 years. One year, we saw two Pileated Woodpeckers in a wooded area along Happy Hollow Rd., and the area included a farm that produced blackbirds. The waterfowl on the Excelsior Springs sewage lagoons and bottomland specialties, plus the usual birds in the upland areas produced a respectable species list even without a developed Jackass Bend W.M.A. Jackass Bend was not the first area considered as a replacement for Trimble. MDC's first choice was a farm in Andrew County. I remember attending a hearing in Savannah at which, speaking for BAS, I opposed the proposed acquisition on the ground that it was too far away from Kansas City. There was local opposition as well, and the deal fell through. Again representing BAS, I spoke for the Jackass Bend location at a hearing in Orrick. The principle spokes persons against the project were local farmers, Keith Artman and Luman Offutt. (I don't know why Offutt opposed it. His farm was east of Orrick). A local farmer named Pigg supported it. (There is an access point named "Pigg's Landing," which I assume was named after him). If my impressions of comments by local residents at the hearing are correct, Artman was not universally popular there, whereas Pigg was well liked. That may have influenced the result. Both the Savannah and the Orrick hearings were held by the Corps of Engineers because the Trimble relocation was considered a mitigation for the Corps' taking of Trimble W.M.A. The Design for Conservation had not yet passed; MDC did not yet have the money for aquisitions it was to get from the 1/8th cent tax, and MDC was trying to get the federal government to pay for a replacment refuge. The proposed replacement refuge was 4000+ acres, whereas Trimble W.M.A. was only about 1200 acres. Among other things, MDC was asking compensation for the flock of Giant Canada Geese it had developed at Trimble, plus a lot of Pin Oak trees it had grown there. There was a change in each of the two Congressional Districts having jurisdiction while the campaign for Jackass Bend went on. Bill Randall retired in the Fourth District and was succeeded by Ike Skelton. Jerry Litton, the Sixth District Congressman, ran for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Stuart Symington and won the Democratic primary. Tragically, Litton and his family were killed in a plane crash returning from the primary victory celebration. He was succeeded by a Republican, whose name I forget (but whom I did lobby personally at his office in North Kansas City). I also lobbied Litton by mail and personally visited both Randall and Skelton. The principal argument raised by opponents of the project was that it would attract large numbers of geese, and they would damage the winter wheat. We had some farmers on our side, who said not to worry about the geese. Farmers put their cattle on the winter wheat and it does fine. The opponents replied, "Okay, you're right. The geese don't hurt the wheat by nibbling it, but they do damage it by trampling it with their feet." Name dropping and getting someone who knows the legislator to contact him is an important aspect of lobbying for a pork barrel project like a W.M.A. My contact at MDC was Mike Milonsky, who then led MDC's Wildlife Division. I had been co-counsel with Ike Skelton on a case, had hosted a dinner for him in the Democratic Primary and knew him fairly well. Therefore, I was assigned to lobby him. I don't know who was right about what geese do or do not do to wheat, but I remember that the issue appeared to have been resolved to Ike Skelton's satisfaction when I told him, per Milonsky, that Lowell Mohler, then a Farm Bureau official, was on our side. (Lowell Mohler is now one of the four Conservation Commissioners). At Skelton's suggestion, I got Jerry Overton, a BAS member and my partner on the Jackass Bend CBC, to line up Harry Jonas, then Chairman of the Jackson County Legislature, to lobby Senator Eagleton on the issue. Another issue in the push to acquire the land was condemnation. MDC has the power to condemn, but it does everything possible to avoid doing it. The Corps of Engineers could care less if it condemns private land. Opponents of the project did what they could to marshal general public hostility toward condemnation against the project. I remember lobbying Stanley Fike, Stuart Symington's Administrative Assistant, whom I knew. Fike had apparently already heard from the opponents. "Isn't this a case of the Conservation Dept. trying to get the federal government to do their dirty work for them?" was Fike's question to me. Symington was out of office before the issue was decided in favor of the project, only to have the funding taken away by Jimmy Carter's anti-pork-barrel veto. When the Design went through, one of MDC's first acquisitions was what is now Cooley Lake CA. Eventually, it also purchasd Settle's Ford CA, Four Rivers CA, Bob Brown W.M.A. , Bilby Lake CA and others with Design money. I don't know how it MDC was compensated for the loss of Trimble. That's all I remember about the push to acquire the land. It was a very interesting time! Bob Fisher Independence, Missouri [log in to unmask] __________________________________________________ ########################################################### * Audubon Society of Missouri's * * Wild Bird Discussion Forum * *---------------------------------------------------------* * To subscribe or unsubscribe, click here: * * https://po.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mobirds-l&A=1 * *---------------------------------------------------------* * To access the list archives, click here: * * http://po.missouri.edu/archives/mobirds-l.html * * * * To access the Audubon Society of Missouri Web * * Site: http://mobirds.org * ###########################################################