300 Alaskan Science Conference 



and 1 banded in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta were taken by 

 hunters and reported to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The 



1 bird from the Yukon Delta was captured in Lake County, 

 Oregon, and of the 12 returns from Innoko birds, 1 was taken 

 in Mexico, 50 miles south of Calexico, 1 in California, 1 at Lake 

 Thelma, Alberta, and g at various points in Saskatchewan, indi- 

 cating that White-fronted Geese raised in this area tend to 

 enter the Mississippi or Central Flyway rather than the Pacific. 



Fifty recoveries were reported from the 1,032 Pintails banded, 

 of which 30 were taken in California, 3 in Oregon, 3 in Wash- 

 ington, 2 in British Columbia, 2 in Alberta, 1 in Saskatchewan, 



2 in Mexico. These birds were produced on the Innoko, Kotze- 

 bue Sound, and Arctic slope. 



Lesser Canada Geese banded both in 1948 and 1949 in the 

 Innoko-Iditarod area were recovered in Oregon, Washington, 

 and California, British Columbia, and in Alaska. Scattered 

 returns from other species, still too few to be of much signifi- 

 cance, indicate that the Pacific Flyway receives most of the 

 puddle ducks and all of the Cackling Geese from these districts. 

 While the returns are too limited to permit definite conclu- 

 sions, the White-fronted Goose is the only species which has yet 

 shown up in numbers outside the Pacific Flyway. When suffi- 

 cient birds have been banded, others such as Greater Scaup and 

 Canvasback may be found moving more to the eastern flyways. 



This summary of unpublished returns indicate that birds 

 bred in Alaska are important not only to the people in the 

 Territory, but to the entire Pacific Coast. We have in the past 

 witnessed the useless destruction in both the United States and 

 Canada of the marshes on which these birds depend. In some 

 cases important units have been reflooded at public expense. 

 Perhaps it is hoping against hope that this historic lesson will 

 be sufficiently heeded to permit the development and execution 

 of a program designed to prevent a similar sequence of events 

 in Alaska. 



The balance between life and death for wildlife in the Arctic 

 is precarious at best. In some areas, the balance which permits 

 these birds to successfully reproduce themselves has already 



