usp:s of natural areas 



29 



Oarp had resulted disastrously to the 

 Nation, so might the importation of 

 foreign game birds and animals result 

 in more injury than good to the State. 



After considering all phases of the 

 question, the idea of a game farm was 

 abandoned, and the Commissioners 

 turned with renewed conviction to the 

 refuge or sanctuary idea, by which 

 our native game birds and game could 

 multiply without assistance from man, 

 other than the systematic extermination 

 of predatory forms and the absolute 

 protection afforded by a perpetual closed 

 season. 



Happily for the purpose of the Com- 

 mission, the movement for the conserva- 

 tion of our forests and water-supply was 

 well under way. Our State Department 

 of Forestry had already acquired large 

 tracts of land, located almost without 

 exception in our mountain counties, 

 at the head-waters of streams, consti- 

 tuting a forest reserve area and rec- 

 reation ground for our people, which, 

 at the present time, aggregates over a 

 million acres distributed over almost half 

 of the 67 Counties of the State. The 

 area of these forest reserves vary, ranging 

 from 1176 acres in Wyoming County to 

 128,085 acres in Clinton County. 



By an Act of Legislature of May 11, 

 1905, the Game Commission was au- 

 thorized, with the consent of the Com- 

 missioner of Forestry, to establish Game 

 Refuges or sanctuaries upon the State 

 forest lands. The Legislature of 1907 

 limited the area of these Preserves to 9 

 mi. in circumference, while those of 

 1911 and 1915 increased their size and 

 provided that the greatest transverse 

 dimension should not exceed 10 mi. nor 

 should the area of the preserve exceed 

 2 of the total area of the tract of land 

 of the forestry reservation upon which 

 the preserve was located. In 1919, an 

 Act was passed, backed by the sports- 

 men, authorizing the Game Commission 

 to purchase with the surplus from the 

 Resident Hunters License Fund, lands 

 near our large centers of population, 

 where the Forestry Commission did not 

 already possess lands, for the purpose of 



establishing game sanctuaries and hunt- 

 ing grounds, similar to those on State 

 lands. Also, an Act allowing the Game 

 Commission to provide auxiliary game 

 preserves of not less than 250 acres or 

 more than 4000 acres through the con- 

 sent of the owners or by lease. These 

 auxiliary preserves may consist of farm 

 lands. 



These wild cut over and burnt over 

 lands, although, in the main, unsuit- 

 able for agriculture, are the natural 

 homes of the game it was desired to 

 attract and propagate and possess 

 the necessary summer and winter 

 feed, streams and cover for our birds, 

 bear, deer, squirrels, rabbits, etc. 

 Chestnuts, beech-nuts, acorns and many 

 other nuts, wild-grapes, haws and other 

 fruits, are abundant, together with an 

 almost endless variety of berries. So 

 long as the ground remained bare feed 

 would be plentiful, and with the coming 

 of the snows and ice many of the birds 

 could feed upon the buds of the beech, 

 birch and other trees, and, if necessary, 

 could be fed by the Preserve keepers. 

 Besides, some of the tracts possessed 

 waters upon which wild water-fowl 

 might find a resting place, at least in 

 their migratory flight. 



Rather than establish a few Refuges 

 of large dimensions, it was deemed 

 advisable to create numerous small ones 

 of about 3000 acres each in extent, and 

 to locate them, as nearly as possible, in 

 the center of the forest reserves in 

 different counties. The purpose of so 

 locating the sanctuaries was to make 

 sure that the game propagated therein 

 would first spread to the State land 

 or land purchased with the sportsmen's 

 funds rather than to the property of any 

 individual or organization which might 

 be posted to prohibit hunting. In this 

 way, the game refuges would produce 

 an unending supply of game which would 

 naturally and inevitably spread to the 

 public forest lands from which no hunter 

 is barred. 



It is thought wise to locate the ref- 

 uges in sections where the game had 

 formerly been plentiful but had been 



