NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



497 



to prices when we have to take such means 

 of transportation as we can get at any 

 price. The success of the Service in hand- 

 ling the fire situation depends very largely 

 upon the thoroughness and intelligence 

 with which preparations are made in ad- 

 vance. Each district ranger will be held 

 strictly accountable for proper prepara- 

 tions. 



Seed-Eating Animals on the Tahoe 



A lengthy article dealing with seed- 

 eating animals appeared in the issue of 

 "The Tahoe," the publication of the Tahoe 

 national forest, and it is in part as fol- 

 lows: 



In the usual order of things, seed produc- 

 ers and seed consumers are, upon the 

 whole, in harmony. While land is cov- 

 ered with living timber there is a vast 

 amount of seed that cannot possibly de- 

 velop into mature plants. Such trees as 

 have seeds of any considerable size are thus 

 natural purveyors for seed-eating creatures 

 both in fur and feathers. Many of these 

 creatures have the habit of storing nuts 

 and other seeds, for future consumption, 

 which involves transportation, and it not 

 infrequently happens that, through acci- 

 dent or oversight, seeds are left where they 

 find suitable conditions in which to grow 

 and reproduce their kind. Indeed, trees 

 bearing seeds too heavy to be carried by 

 the wind are distributed mainly through 

 the provident labors of these animals. 

 There is, therefore, normally a kind of 

 interdependence between certain trees and 

 certain animals. 



The moment natural conditions are up- 

 set, however, this harmony gives place to 

 antagonism. Let a fire reduce the forest 

 to embers and bare earth, and the seed- 

 eaters immediately become opposed to re- 

 forestration. Only the arboreal species are 

 banished for more than a few months by 

 a forest fire. The earth dwellers — ground 

 squirrels, chipmunks, and mice — soon re- 

 turn to their old haunts and flourish upon 

 the product of various herbs and deeply 

 rooted shrubs, which spring up and clothe 

 the ground in a single summer. But 

 though they thrive and multiply under new 

 conditions, their noses are ever keen for 

 the scent of nuts. 



When it is proposed to reforest a burn 

 by seeding, an essential preliminary is to 

 ascertain what kinds of rodents are upon 

 it, how numerous they are and how they 

 are distributed, in order that adequate 

 steps may be taken for the protection of 

 the seed to be planted. The necessity for 

 this preliminary is made clear by the light 

 of experience. 



On a plantation made in the Tahoe for- 

 est during the winter following a fire in 

 July, only 40 per cent of the seed spots pro- 

 duced seedlings. This loss was mainly due 

 to Beechy ground squirrels and white- 



footed mice; yet careful observation and 

 trapping showed the average number of 

 ground squirrels per acre to be only two or 

 three per acre, and of mice to be about 

 six. Had this burn been older there would 

 undoubtedly have been a larger population 

 of rodents upon it. 



On a 12-year-old burn in the Black Hills 

 forest 11 mice and 3 chipmunks were trap- 

 ped on a half acre containing 2,000 seed 

 sprouts. They had taken 70 per cent of the 

 pine seed planted there in six days. One 

 chipmunk was seen to visit 38 seed spots in 

 four minutes. The need of attending to 

 rodents prior to planting does not require 

 further demonstration. 



Where rodents are present signs of them 

 can be discovered by scanning the ground, 

 but the species to which they belong and 

 their relative number can best be deter- 

 mined by the use of traps for a day or 

 two. The catapult traps to be had at any 

 hardware store serve every purpose, a 

 dozen mouse traps and as many rat traps 

 being sufiicient. For bait, oatmeal or a 

 scrap of bacon rind or, better still, both 

 together, may be used. It is important to 

 note whether the animals are concentrated 

 in favorable situations or are generally 

 distributed, as upon this point hangs the 

 distribution of poisoned grain which is to 

 be employed in exterminating the pests 

 An excellent poison may be prepared as 

 follows: 



Wheat 1 bushel 



Water 1 quart 



Starch 2 tablespoonfuls 



Saccharine 2 teaspoonf uls 



Strychnine (pulverized) 2 ounces 



Add the starch, saccharine and strych- 

 nine to the water, heat to boiling, and stir 

 constantly after the starch begins to thick- 

 en. When the starch is fully cooked stir it 

 into the wheat, every kernel of which 

 should be coated. A galvanized iron wash- 

 tub is an excellent mixing vessel, especial- 

 ly as it is easily cleaned. Either the sul- 

 phate or the alkoloid of strychnine may be 

 used. 



If rain is imminent and the poisoning 

 cannot be delayed, melted tallow should be 

 substituted for the starch solution as a 

 coating medium. In this case the wheat 

 should first be slightly warmed, the saccha- 

 rine and strychnine added, and then the 

 tallow applied, in the ratio of a quart to a 

 bushel of wheat. 



The putting out of poisoned grain de- 

 pends entirely upon the number and dis- 

 tribution of the animals for which it is 

 intended. In that part of the Tahoe Na- 

 tional Forest near Nevada City, seed-eating 

 rodents are not numerous relatively speak- 

 ing. The mice are living chiefly about logs 

 and stumps and in old gopher holes, and 

 the ground squirrels are easily located by 

 their burrows. Under such circumstances 

 as these, poison need be put only in places 



