Red Rock Lakes in Montana helped save the 

 trumpeter swan from extinction. 



merit is a problem that is always present. Fire 

 protection is a major activity on most refuges. 



Across the continent, flyway by flyway, ade- 

 quate development can easily be demonstrated as 

 the key to successful refuge management. 

 Through the years the Congress has made very 

 few direct appropriations for development of the 

 refuge areas. The only major appropriation for 

 this purpose was for the construction work needed 

 to restore Lower Klamath National Wildlife Ref- 

 uge in California, and even this had to be supple- 

 mented with Duck Stamp funds. Practically all 

 of the development work has had to be financed 

 either from emergency relief funds, which pro- 

 vided labor, or from Duck Stamp money supple- 

 mented in a small way by the use of refuge receipts 

 and levelled Pittman -Robertson funds. Such 

 Duck Stamp revenues as have been available for 

 development of waterfowl refuges have been well 

 spent. 



The Future 



The eventual late of waterfowl on the North 

 American Continent is uncertain, mure so in fact 

 than for any other game species. Despite all that 

 has been done over the years, waterfowl find their 

 needs in ever-growing competition with the re- 

 quirements of an expanding human population. 

 The draining of marshes for agricultural improve- 

 ment, tor metropolitan and community growth, 

 for the construction of airports, landing strips, 

 and new highways yes. even for disposal dumps 

 for refuse from our cities and towns, pose prob- 

 lem- lh:it will lie most ditlicult to solve. 



Today and for years past we have watched 

 marshes and ponds disappear as agriculture has 

 ex] landed. In the black prairie-pothole region of 

 western and southern Minnesota and eastern 

 North and South Dakota, agricultural drainage 

 removed, in each of the years 1949 and 19o0, about 

 22,000 potholes, amounting to some (53,000 acres. 

 These areas were the most productive waterfowl 

 lands in the United States, fully equal to the best 

 producing areas in Canada. Similar drainage is 

 occurring in many coastal sections, which are most 

 important to the birds as wintering grounds. 

 Most of the great natural marshes of the Gulf are 

 being ruined or seriously damaged for waterfowl 

 use by salt-water intrusion as a result of the Intra- 

 coastal and connecting canals, and by exploration 

 for sulfur and oil. Waterfowl of the Pacific 

 Flyway are rapidly approaching a crisis because 

 the lush marshes which once supported myriads 

 of birds wintering in California and northern 

 Mexico are being turned into cotton and rice fields, 

 orchards, and urban developments. 



Thus we see waterfowl facing a precarious and 

 uncertain future, and in years to come the major 

 reliance will probably have to be on lands dedi- 

 cated to their needs — lands in the ownership of 

 the Federal Government, the States, and private 

 clubs. At the same time, acquisition of such lands 

 will increasingly be in competition with other 

 human uses, and therefore only at competitive 

 prices. The need for an accelerated acquisition 

 and development program faces us now. 



There has been outlined the program of the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service during the past years. 

 To this must be added the work of the State fish 

 and game departments, largely made possible by 

 Pittman-Robertson funds. The history of State 

 acquisition for waterfowl purposes parallels that 

 of the Service in that, with a few exceptions, little 

 was done before the late thirties, but after passage 

 of the P.-R. Act in 1937, when appropriations 

 became available for wildlife restoration, the 

 States began to take an active interest. Since that 

 time 4ti States have acquired more than 410,000 

 acres of land costing $9,336,000, specifically for 

 waterfowl. The States have invested an addi- 

 tional $1.'5,5()().0(H) to develop those areas, and in 

 fact have been sufficiently interested in the water 

 fowl program to invest 21 percent of their total 

 Pittman-Robertson cash in this line of endeavor. 



Much has been accomplished, lint much more 

 needs to be accomplished in the future if wild- 



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