WILDLIFE REFUGE PROGRAM — GABRIELSON 319 



construction we did not feel like burdening the limited personnel with 

 the duties of looking after people on the refuges and providing for 

 their wants, although I do not believe that the Service has refused a 

 single request for permission to do scientific work on any refuge, even 

 though it might inconvenience the personnel during the developmental 

 period. As the refuges pass beyond this stage — and by that I mean 

 the period of construction of necessary dams and dikes in order to 

 restore water, the building of fences and the other things necessary 

 to keep out the stock, the completion of administration buildings, and 

 the provision of similar equipment necessary to develop a real refuge 

 program — we look forward to being able to give more attention to 

 other phases of the work. All are invited to feel free to use these 

 refuges in making studies of bird and animal life. The Service will 

 be more than pleased to offer its cooperation and all available facilities 

 in these areas. These facilities will be found to vary according to the 

 location and the available personnel. Some refuges have modern and 

 convenient laboratories situated on the ground, while others have the 

 most primitive, wild conditions that could be found in areas not yet 

 and probably never to be developed. 



Our Service is proud, and w^e believe justly so, of the accomplish- 

 ments along these lines during the past few years. We look forward 

 with confidence to the time when we shall be able to say (and we hope 

 that it will not be far in the future) that the refuge areas in this 

 country are adequate to insure, so far as human provision is possible, 

 that not one remaining species of American wildlife will vanish from 

 the face of the earth. 



