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Show or close to home. Dog owners are urged to know the habits of their animals.. For some time there has been speculation among sportsmen as to why Idaho has been able to have a 12 to 14 day season on ring-necked pheasants while Utah has had only a 2 to 5 day season. sea-son. . To determine the reasons for this season length difference, the Wildlife Management Institute through the Utah Cooperative Research Unit and in cooperation with the Utah and Idaho Fish and Game Departments, has initiated a study to determine whether the seasons as they now stand in the two states are beneficial or detrimental detri-mental to the pheasant populations. popula-tions. That is, whether Idaho is over-harvesting their pheasants or whether Utah is under-harvesting theirs. Temple A. Reynolds, Jr.. graduate student in the' department depart-ment of Wildlife Management at the Utah State Agricultural College Col-lege has been assigned to this important investigation. Preliminary results indicate that the 16 day season on ring-necked pheasants in Idaho this year did not over-harvest the population of birds. This cannot, however, be I taken as indicative that the five day Utah .season under-harvested the birds. Heavy population centers cen-ters in Northern Utah possibly create g'reater hunter pressures in the Utah study area than in the Southern Idaho study area. Areas to study the effect of the season's length of pheasants have been selected in Cache County Utah, and in Franklin County, Idaho, near the state line where geogrophy, land use, .and pheasant pheas-ant habitat appear to be very similar. Fish and Game News Notes... Two large natural- trout rearing rear-ing ponds are nearing completion at the Department of Fish and Game's Midway hatchery in He-ber He-ber Valley. They are situated at the lower end of the hatchery property, and each is approximately one-half acre in size. All work is being done by construction personnel and equipment belonging to the department. An expected 200 loads of rainbow rain-bow legals should come from these ponds each 'ear following completion. com-pletion. This amounts to an additional ad-ditional . 240,000 such fish in the state's yearly planting program. Finishing of the ponds is expected ex-pected in time to stock them with rainbow fingerling by early May. Dogs on the loose are a serious ser-ious threat to game bird and animal ani-mal populations at any time. This is especially true during winter months when heavy snows make it difficult for game creatures to move about as freely as during other periods. Game managers are presently concerned with the harassing and losses of pheasant and deer populations popu-lations caused by dogs roaming loose in the fields and foot-hills. They note that many times dogs are apprehended miles afield when the owner believed, they were at |