*#*** 



Bulrush ready for geese. 



fowling is to be tin' sport of our sons and our 

 grandsons that it has been of the present genera- 

 tion. 



From the foregoing, then, we have seen the 

 effort and funds which went into the establish- 

 ment of the Nation's present 205 waterfowl refuge 

 areas, totaling 3,269,549 acres. 



In 1934 a careful study of our waterfowl re- 

 source showed that originally we had approxi- 

 mately 120 million acres of marsh and wetlands. 

 Fewer than -'50 million acres of habitat of good 

 quality for waterfowl remain today. In 1934, 

 on the lia.-is of the existing waterfowl population 

 and future requirements of the waterfowl resource, 

 it was felt that the Federal Government should 

 own and develop r,500,000 acres. That estimate 

 has stood the test of time. We are almost halfway 

 to that goal now. We still need about 4 million 

 acres, and we need them very soon because of the 

 greatly accelerated destruction of waterfowl 

 habitat and the great increase in the number of 

 waterfowl hunters. 



Counting the restoration work that could be 

 done by the States, a total of 12,500,000 acres of 

 land managed primarily for waterfowl is con- 

 sidered the minimum acreage which will carry 

 the present waterfowl population and permit its 

 reasonable increase to a point where the waterfowl 



IB! 



The same area after geese have fed. 





hunters of the future can be accommodated on a 

 practical basis. It is expected that the States, 

 through the opportunities provided by the Pitt- 

 man-Robertson program, will be able to preserve 

 not less than 5 million acres of waterfowl habitat. 

 While the States will place a different emphasis 

 on this restoration — with hunting the chief ob- 

 jective — still the waterfowl areas of the States 

 will carry many waterfowl in the nonhunting sea- 

 son. It is only recently that the States have given 

 more emphasis to waterfowl restoration work, and 

 it is expected that this phase of State game admin- 

 istration will continue to receive popular support. 

 We already have, as a result of -JO years of water- 

 fowl reconnaissance and the recent wetland survey 

 of the Service, a knowledge of where these strategic 

 areas are. In each of these areas there is a water- 

 fowl management problem requiring Federal 

 ownership to provide additional breeding grounds, 

 wintering grounds, intermediate Byway refuges, 

 endemic waterfowl disease abatement, and crop 

 depredation reduction. There are generally one 

 or more possible sites that can be acquired in each 



problem area. A number of these areas would be 



established jointly with States. More and more 

 we are teaming up on this type id' management, 

 which we hold most desirable. Often the overall 

 problem of land acquisition and development is 



17 



