conservation and erosion control can also be readily 

 combined vvitii wildlife management, especially when 

 trees and shrubs selected for planting to regulate soil 

 erosion are species useful to game as cover and food. 

 The farmer can encourage establishment of small 

 game species on his land by practices that do not in- 

 terfere with the raising of crops. The maintenance of 

 brushy fence rows does not increase the lunnber of 

 insect or other crop pests (Dambach 1948), as has 

 sometimes been maintained. A knowledge of the fun- 

 damentals of life-history and ecology is essential to 

 wildlife management, as wildlife management is ap- 

 plied ecology and involves the management of the 

 total community, not merely game species in it ( Leo- 

 pold 19.v^ I. 



PRESERVATION OF NATURAL AREAS 



It is of utmost importance for the future of 

 ecological studies that adequate samples of virgin 

 primitive areas — forest communities, tundra, grass- 

 land, desert, tropical and rain forest, and all serai 

 as well as all climax types of communities in all parts 

 of the world — be preserved intact. Balanced primi- 

 tive communities are the result of processes at work 

 through eons of time. Primary communities once de- 

 stroyed, there is never assurance that the secondary 

 communities which develop can ever exactly dupli- 

 cate them. This involves not only the replacement of 

 all species in the original fauna, but also their replace- 

 ment in the same relative numbers so that an inte- 

 grated balanced community is fully re-established. 

 The preservation of such natural areas is of historical 

 value to future generations as a record of natural con- 

 ditions over the country in pre-colonial days. Natural 

 areas serve as controls for the agricultural develop- 

 ment of the country, for the evaluation of various 

 farming practices and uses of the land, and to show 

 the potentialities of vegetative development of various 

 parts of the continent. No one can know the potential 

 value for food, medicine, or domestication of any 

 organism that makes up primitive communities. 



Large primitive areas are preserved in some of 

 the National Parks, National Monuments, and in 

 some of the larger of our state parks (Kendeigh 

 1951 ). Natural, wild, and wilderness areas have been 

 set aside in several of the National Forests. Smaller 

 areas of ecological value are being preserved in state, 

 city, and private preserves. Not all community types 

 are represented ; more areas need to be set aside in 

 other parts of the country, and constant vigilance 

 must be exercised to keep them undisturbed. These 

 projects are being sponsored by the Nature Con- 

 servancy, the National Parks Association, the Wil- 

 derness Society, and other organizations which de- 

 serve the support of all ecologists. 



CfLk2ld WOOD LOT ^^^ / ,.■■' 



*^m^m^-^ 





tUBBisH HEAP 



CLOVER. TIMOTHY 



FIG. 9-16 Sketch of a lOO-acre farm before 4nd after improve- 

 ments to encourage small game. (A) windbreak, of some value 

 to game as cover; (B) hardwood planting, perhaps black 

 locust usable later for fenceposts; (C) a portion of the crop 

 (corn) left, near cover, for wildlife; (D) a field or fence border; 



(E) emergency food, a few shocks of grain placed near cover; 



(F) cover planting of coniferous trees; (Q) a quail habitat with 

 food and cover (Phelps 1954 In KiVg/nio Wildlife). 



Grassland, forests, and forest-edges 



141 



