HUNTING ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



181 



Hunters in the Shoshone National Forest. 



HERE ARE JOHN GOFF AND HIS SON WHO WERE EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S GUIDES ON HIS WESTERN HUNTING TRIPS. 



THE SHOSHONE NATIONAL FOREST IS IN \V~i'OMING. 



to attract visitors from afar. Many 

 sportsmen come from Eurpoe to hunt 

 American game in the diminishing 

 wild west. The National Forests offer 

 the finest opportunities for big-game 

 hunting to be had in the United States. 

 As civilization advances upon the wilder- 

 ness and conquers it, there will be left 

 many areas which are the natural 

 habitat of game animals and which are 

 too rough in character for much settle- 

 ment or for advantageous use by live- 

 stock. It would be from every point 

 of view a misforttine not to adopt a 

 policy, in administering such lands, 

 which recognizes the value of big 

 game both from the sportsman's and 

 from the nature-lover's standpoint, and 

 which provides for its perpetuation. Of 

 course such a policy must take account 

 of all interests involved, and be fair to 

 all. The National Forests can not in 

 their entirety be closed to other forms 

 of use in order to make them first of all 

 a huge set of game preserves; nor 

 would any sane person be likely to 



advocate such a course. There must 

 be a careful determination of how far 

 the Government should go in providing 

 for game propagation; and where game 

 is to be given special protection there 

 must be a definite estimate of the needs 

 of the game in the way of feeding 

 grounds, with such provision for meet- 

 ing these needs that the animals will not 

 breed only to starve to death. 



In a state of nature the tendency of 

 animals to multiply indefinitely is held 

 in check by the inevitable balance 

 which prevents an}' one form of life 

 from overrunning the earth. The 

 check is imposed partly by the mtilti- 

 plication of natural enemies which 

 automatically takes place as the food 

 supply of these enemies is increased, 

 partly by the necessity of competing 

 for a limited food supply; or, most 

 often in the case of animals which 

 subsist on vegetation, by both causes 

 together. As the meat-eaters are killed 

 off by man for the protection of domestic 

 stock one of the natural checks on the 



