Are We Overregulating the Sportsman?

The conservation officer's job should be to mold favorable public opinion while enforcing the conservation and boating laws. Those laws that are biologically sound ensure the public safety, and applied uniformly form the core of a sound enforcement program. Laws for the convenience of the officer or the administration have no place in the program. The power to invoke the criminal process carries with it the power for leniency. If the objective of all laws is voluntary compliance, then reasonable laws applied with the discretion of good common sense will accomplish that objective.