At a recent hunter ed. class the instructor, a MDC offical, made a good point. He said in his opinion we don't have a deer numbers problem so much as we have a hunter access problem. I tend to agree. Spots to hunt are becoming harder to find and much harder to afford. I know public ground takes a beating when it comes to the prospect of producing good deer and the chance of other hunter encounters turns most people off. But if there was a lot more public land, would more of us use it? I'm curious. I've also thought about how MDC or the state could aquire more land. Around Labor Day every gas station in Mid-MO sells those green, 4 leafs clovers for $1 to support the MDA. Whey not ask hunters who are buying permits if they would like to donate $1 to the hunter access fund? A fund supported entirely by hunters for the purchase of new land or expanding the size of existing Cons. areas.