Administration of Wildlife Resources— Elkins 279 



aids. Certainly the teachers need help on this, and existing 

 textbooks with examples of corn and pheasants, quail and 

 lespedeza are not to the point. 



Many other wildlife problems in relation to the human 

 factor come to mind, such as airplane hunting and public atti- 

 tudes toward bear and toward sea lion. Also there is the critical 

 problem of public awareness and support for an adequate sys- 

 tem of waterfowl refuges at the great nesting and concentration 

 areas where the hunting pressure is increasing each year. 



The problem which I wish to touch on briefly, however, is 

 something which might be called the lack of an incentive for 

 husbandry. The problem is best illustrated by the fur resources. 

 A trapper handles his trap line conservatively and takes a rea- 

 sonable crop from his marten line and a reasonable crop from 

 his mink line. Another trapper takes every last pelt he can 

 from his line including most of the seed stock and then moves 

 on to greener pastures. One year his movements may bring him 

 to the first trapper's line and there is the end of the conservative 

 trapper's carefully-husbanded fur crop. Another abuse is the 

 practice of town and city part-time trappers taking the cream 

 of the fur crop from an area where fur is the basis for the 

 economy of the local inhabitants. 



In some places, registered trap lines have proved to be a rea- 

 sonably successful solution. In others, trapping areas assigned 

 to either the individual or a group or a village, have resulted 

 in a sustained yield and more stable income. We need many 

 more facts on which to base a sound wild-fur management pro- 

 gram for Alaska. This is one of the principal objectives of the 

 Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Alaska. 

 The present research is concentrated on beaver and muskrat 

 but will later be broadened to include other species. 



Some measures in fur management have been taken on an 

 extensive rather than intensive basis. Alaska has been divided 

 into eight fur districts with regulations varied to meet con- 

 ditions in the individual districts. Also a sealing system has 

 been put into effect which limits the trapper to 10 beaver, the 

 only species so regulated. Neither measure is tied in with the 



