FISH FOR THE FORESTS 



705 



Restocking the Streams. 



after the water in the can has been aerated and brought gradually to the same temperature as the 

 stream the fish are gently allowed to go into their new home. this stream is in the 

 black hills national forest, south dakota. 



prepared to take every precaution nec- 

 essary to secure the successful estab- 

 lishment of the fish. 



The work very frequently involves 

 considerable personal sacrifice on the 

 part of the forest officer since the fish 

 car, once it begins its rounds, is no 

 respecter of official hours and a per- 

 son to whom lish are consigned must 

 be prepared to receive them on very 

 short notice at almost any hour of any 

 day or night. As a result many of the 

 fish are transported and planted at 

 night or on Sundays and holidays and 

 the work is performed with such haste 

 that it really interferes l)ut little if at 

 all with the officer's regular official 

 duties. 



The demands from the field have be- 

 come so numerous that in the district 

 which has led the others in this work 

 steps have been taken to systematize 



future operations along this line. A 

 total of 273 bodies of water distributed 

 among twenty-four Forests in Colorado 

 and Wyoming have been selected for 

 restocking during the coming nine 

 years and the number of fish required 

 to supply each separate body has been 

 carefully estimated. According to the 

 plan the initial distribution in 1914 

 amounts to mure than four million fry 

 but a gradual reduction will be made 

 each year in the number planted until 

 in 1922 only six buiulred thousand will 

 be distributed. This work, involving 

 little if any cost to the Service and prac- 

 tically no interference with regular 

 work, has proved immensely popular 

 with the people who resort to the for- 

 ests for rest and recreation and has 

 done much to make the forests more 

 valuable to the public. 



