Administration of Wildlife Resources— Elkins 269 



game is the basis for the economy of much of Alaska particu- 

 larly the Arctic and Subarctic regions and without these re- 

 sources these regions and much of the interior would not be 

 habitable by man. 



I. Basic Land— Climate— Wildlife Relationship 



Agriculturists are well aware of the limitations Alaska's soil 

 and climate impose on the yield of grain and livestock. Iowa 

 magnitude hundred-bushel-to-the-acre grain yields or a cow to 

 every two acres is not claimed and we accept the fact that neither 

 the climate nor the soil will permit such yields or such density 

 of animals. With fish and wildlife, however, we are not so 

 inhibited and the outdoor magazines carry Alaska hunting and 

 fishing stories that seem to say, "come to Alaska where the 

 brown bear and caribou abound and everv lake and stream is 

 teeming with fish." I suppose the impression of great abun- 

 dance results from the telescoping of a month long hunt into a 

 few brief pages; the gameless days and the endless miles of 

 spruce between fishing holes do not stand out in such an 

 account. 



A few years ago the Tanana Valley Sportsmen's Association 

 posted a notice at Tok Junction where Alaska Highway visitors 

 entered the territory from Canada. The notice began, "Alaska 

 is not teeming with game and fish—." But practically nobody 

 believed it until they had been in the territory for some time. 

 Here then is a basic problem; to determine actual wildlife popu- 

 lation densities in the various soil and cover types and in the 

 several climates of Alaska. Some of the findings to date in this 

 type of survey have been significant; for example a winter 

 moose density of 1 y 2 per square mile was found on the Kenai 

 National Moose Range in contrast to 3 moose per mile in the 

 Susitna Valley. Yet both areas were short of winter food, the 

 difference being that the Kenai had supported a large winter 

 moose herd for many years and in that time the forest succession 

 had matured and some moose browse such as birch had erown 

 out of reach of moose and other such as willow had been re- 

 placed by spruce. The remaining browse in the concentrated 



