30 



NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



practically exterminated, to gain by 

 such action the support and assistance 

 of the hunters in that region, rather 

 than to locate in territory containing 

 plenty of game, thereby incurring the 

 resentment of the hunters who would 

 feel that their best hunting grounds 

 has been taken away. 



When the location of the Refuge has 

 been decided upon, the first thing nec- 

 essary is to exterminate the predatory 

 species, which destroy more game than 

 the hunters. The wildcat, weasel, fox, 

 skunk, mink, crow, hawk, owl, and the 

 prowling house-cat are, through the care- 

 ful use of strychnine, and by other 

 means, killed off. The next step is to 

 guard against the danger from fire, and 

 the brush is cleared from a strip of land 

 15 to 20 ft. wide around the outside of 

 the Preserve. In some instances, where 

 the danger from fire is pronounced, it is 

 also crossed with fire lines, thus creating 

 open roads where fires may be met and 

 extinguished. 



Predatory animals having been ex- 

 terminated and provision made for 

 fighting forest fires, we next surround the 

 refuge with a single marking wire, 

 fastened to trees or posts, about waist 

 high on a man, the object being not to 

 enclose the game but to define the limits 

 of the refuge. This wire is usually 

 nine miles long and is placed inside the 

 fii'e lines surrounding the Refuge. At 

 frequent intervals, notices printed upon 

 muslin are tacked up along the line of 

 wire, fastened to trees or posts, calling 

 attention to the fact that the lands 

 inside the wire are a State refuge for 

 game, and asking for the cooperation 

 of all in seeing that the game is not 

 disturbed. The sanctity of these Pre- 

 serves, in almost 15 years, has only been 

 violated once, and then, it was claimed, 

 by mistake, showing that our sportsmen 

 appreciate their value. 



The Refuge is now ready for the 

 game, and if it is not already, sufficiently 

 stocked, game of various kinds, such as 

 deer, elk, wild turkeys, fox squirrels, 

 etc., are purchased and placed in it. A 

 State Game Keeper is in charge of each 



Refuge. His duties are to fight fires, 

 see that the Game is not molested, keep 

 the Refuge free from predatory ani- 

 mals, on which, as an incentive, he is 

 paid the regular bounties. In order to 

 supplement the natural feed in the 

 Refuges and attract and maintain wild 

 life, he is instructed to plant walnuts, 

 hickory nuts, mulberries, wild cherries, 

 mountain ash, apples, wild grapes and 

 other nut, fruit and berry producing 

 trees and shrubbery, buckwheat and 

 other grains. In addition to this, he 

 plants barberries, spruces, pines, etc. 

 for shelter and winter cover. 



There are no fences around the Pre- 

 serves and, as stated above, the wire is 

 intended only as a marker, so that the 

 game is not confined in any way, but 

 can enter and leave the Refuge at will, 

 it being intended to reproduce as nearly 

 as possible the conditions under which 

 animals and birds thrive in a wild state. 

 Naturally, the herds and flocks inter- 

 mingle at pleasure and there is no in- 

 breeding with the consequent loss in 

 stamina that would occur in a fenced 

 enclosure. 



Provided dogs and guns are left out- 

 side the wire, our Refuges are open to 

 the public except during the open season 

 for game when no person, save the officer 

 in charge, is allowed within the wire, 

 the purpose of this provision being to 

 prevent the driving of deer and other 

 game outside the Preserve onto the 

 Forest Reserve, where it may be killed 

 in the open season. 



We now have 33 Game Refuges of 

 about 3000 acres each with a large area 

 surrounding them upon which men may 

 hunt. Ten of these Refuges were pur- 

 chased by the sportsmen's funds. Owing 

 to the almost universal posting of farms 

 against hunting and the hunter being a 

 tenant-at-will on State lands, the for- 

 ward-looking sportsmen of Pennsylvania 

 are now asking for an increase in the 

 Resident Hunters License Fee. This 

 increase to be used exclusively for 

 purchase of Game Refuges and Pub- 

 lic Shooting Grounds, preferably in 

 10,000 acre tracts, scattered throughout 



