Lee Howley Jr. and Pepper, his 8-year-old black Labrador retriever, had eyes to the sky.

The pair were perched in a patch of Sandusky Bay marsh,
squinting into a rising sun as flocks of ducks and geese were swirling
on the horizon. It would be difficult to determine whether man or dog
was more intensely wishing a flock of mallards to visit the spread of
decoys in front of the blind.

Howley, 61, grew up splashing through the muck of Sandusky Bay
marshland. He treasures a sunrise in a duck blind and, like his late
father Lee Howley Sr., has never taken for granted the value of
waterfowl and wetlands habitat.

"I don't remember how old I was, but dad took me to the
marshes before I could shoulder a gun," said Howley. He soon became
adept with a shotgun and was a 12-year-old skeet champion at Beaver
Creek Hunt Club in Lorain County.

The club was founded by his father, the lead counsel for the
Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company. The elder Howley was both an Ohio and a national
president of Ducks Unlimited and was the long-time president of Ottawa Shooting
Club before his death in 1983.

Like his father and brother Dan before him, Howley was appointed
to the Ohio Wildlife Council in 1995 and is now its chairman.

"Long before being named to the council, I had the benefit of
talking about wildlife issues with my father," said Howley, president
of Howley Bread Group Ltd. in Westlake that operates 20 Panera Bread
franchises in New England. "Great conversations are one of the
benefits of sharing a duck blind, which I try to do as often as I can
with my sons, Lee (20) and Luke (17)."

"Dad had a wonderful perspective on the importance of hunters
giving something back, especially as it related to habitat or managing
wildlife resources. I've long been involved with Ducks Unlimited and
other conservation groups, but being a member of the council is a more
formalized way to make a contribution."

Howley enjoys sailing, racing a 53-foot sailboat he named Canvasback after his favorite duck. He has a small center-console fishing boat to ferry him from his shoreline home
to the great Lake Erie yellow perch and walleye fishing. Joining us in
Howley's marsh blind were veteran waterfowl hunters Ray Schoenke and
Charles "Rocky" Saxbe. Schoenke is a president of the American
Hunters and Shooters Association. Saxbe is a former Ohio legislator,
senior partner of a Columbus law firm and son of U.S. Attorney General
William Saxbe. The Saxbe family has long been involved in Ohio
conservation issues.

The Sandusky Bay region has 18 waterfowl hunting clubs - the
Winous Point Shooting Club dates back to 1856 - and five wildlife areas
nestled in more than 20,000 acres of marshland.
"Without those clubs, wetlands habitat would be in
disarray," said Howley.

It's expensive to build and maintain a marsh, but few know
what an acre of Sandusky Bay marsh is worth. The demand for a marsh that
migrating ducks find alluring far exceeds the supply.

Saxbe kicked off the morning, bagging a drake mallard with a
well-used pump-action shotgun. The bird had circled our blind a
half-dozen times before finally making the mistake of cupping its wings
to join the decoys.

Pepper was in canine heaven, the long-legged Lab splashing
through the decoys to retrieve Saxbe's bird. Howley was a happy hunter
after tricking the bird with his duck call and seeing it splash in his
marsh. Schoenke and I provided the praise, knowing we'd soon get a
chance.

"I only get to spend a couple of days each week in the duck
blind," said Howley. "That's not enough. I'm winding down my
service to the OWC, an appointment that runs through 2011. I'm happy
to have the chance to make my contribution."

The major wildlife issues we face in Ohio, says Howley, haven't changed much in recent years.

"The biggest challenge is preserving wildlife habitat in a
state that is very urbanized," he said. "We also have to expose
young people to fishing and hunting so they will have a burning desire
to preserve the habitat and wildlife we have in Ohio."

SCHOENKE TOURS OHIO

Ray Schoenke was known as fearless on the football field, a 6-3, 246-pound offensive tackle for the Washington Redskins who managed to hold his own for a dozen years against much larger defensive ends. The Hawaii-born sportsman has now tackled America's most potent gun group.

The president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), Schoenke is an avid bird hunter, shooter and conservationist who owns a 300-acre hunting farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Schoenke and the AHSA have been roundly criticized by the National Rifle Association for, among other things, campaigning for Barrack Obama and having friends and supporters that aren't fervent gun proponents.

"I've hunted all my life, and all over the world," said Schoenke, as we shared a Sandusky Bay waterfowl hunting blind on Wednesday. "The AHSA is pro-gun, and we're also for wildlife conservation. Conservation issues are extremely important to hunters, but have been totally ignored by the NRA.

"The NRA has 3 million members, while America has 80 million gun owners. We want to reach out to those people who are hunters and conservations - and even Democrats. I'm certainly not afraid to stand up to the NRA."

Schoenke bankrolled the ASHA after selling a multi-million dollar insurance business he developed after retiring from football in 1975. He says growth of the ASHA has been slow, but steady.

Schoenke admits that when he came to Cleveland to play against the Browns, he never thought about northern Ohio as a great location for anglers and hunters.

"This trip really changed my thinking," he said. "I never knew these great waterfowl marshes were here, the wonderful deer and turkey hunting, or the Lake Erie fishing."

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