CONSERVATION OF GAME IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



AND NATIONAL PARKS 



BY E. W. NELSON, 

 CHIEF, BUREAU BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 



LONG after the increasing population of the eastern 

 United States had forced the elk and the bison across 

 the Mississippi, the boundless open plains and for- 

 ested mountains of the West swarmed with a primeval 

 abundance of game. All are familiar with accounts of the 

 millions of bison, antelope, elk and deer which ranged the 

 great plains and the Rocky Mountain region within half a 

 century, and a writer traveling through the San Joaquin 

 Valley, California, in 1850, records seeing "bands of elk, 

 deer and antelope in such numbers they actually darkened 

 the plains for miles and looked in the distance like great 

 herds of cattle." 



The resistless westward advance of settlement con- 

 tinued and now the agricultural lands from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific are peopled, and where crops cannot be grown 

 the watering places are held for the use of multiplying 



game refuges exi.st, the Grand Canyon and llic Wichita, 

 where game is protected under Federal law. In addition, 

 state game refuges have been made on the National 

 Forests in six states. On these state refuges, as else- 

 where on the National Forests, state game laws prevail, 

 though the authority of the Federal Government controls 

 the timber and grazing. 



In the sixteen National Parks the Federal Govern- 

 ment has full authority to protect game in only seven: 

 the Yellowstone, Glacier, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, 

 Platte, Hot Springs, and the Hawaiian. The states have 

 not ceded jurisdiction for the other nine parks and in the 

 absence of Federal legislation the Federal authorities can 

 punish poachers there only by expelling them from within 

 the park limits. Of the 34 National Monuments, 21 are 

 administered by. the National Park Service, 1 1 by the 



From Biological Survey. 



BISON ON THE FEDERAL BISON RANGE AT DIXON, MONTANA 



Within the memory of many now alive there were hundreds of thousands of buffalo in the West, but their indiscriminate slaughter for beef and hides has resulted 



in their almost complete disappearance. 



herds of cattle and sheep. Under these conditions not less 

 than 90 per cent of all the big game remaining between the 

 Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast has been forced to 

 retreat to the moimtains traversing that vast region . There 

 among the rugged peaks and forest-covered slopes which 

 characterize our remaining wilderness are sheltered the 

 survivors of the wonderful hosts of big game animals 

 which once graced so large a part of the continent. For- 

 tunately the major part of these mountain lands, not being 

 available for agriculture, have remained, and are likely to 

 continue, a part of the public domain. 



At present the situation as to game control in the 

 West is extremely chaotic. The game there is practically 

 all concentrated on that part of the public domain in- 

 cluded in the National Forests, National Parks and Na- 

 tional Monuments. On the National Forests two Federal 



Forest Service, and two are under the jurisdiction of the 

 War Department, but the game on them remains subject 

 to state jurisdiction. 



To add to the confusion, the states have many varj-ing 

 and conflicting laws which often produce unhappy con- 

 sequences for the game. Furthermore, in many of the 

 states where the laws appear to give a fair degree of pro- 

 tection, through lack of funds, or for other reasons the 

 protection is extremely ineffective. The fact that game 

 is steadily decreasing in a large part of the West while the 

 number of sportsmen is increasing is indicated by the fact 

 that in the regulations under the state laws there is from 

 year to year a decrease in the number of game animals a 

 hunter is permitted to shoot in a season. 



Throughout the West where elk, antelope and moun- 

 tain sheep were once so plentiful and widely distributed, 



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