land use, the work is still concerned primarily with 

 coyote, bobcat, wolf, and mountain lion predation in 

 the Western States, wolf predation in Alaska, epi- 

 demics of rabies among wildlife, and damage by field 

 rodents and common rats and mice throughout the 

 country. 



The control methods used are based on careful 

 research and are designed to cause as little harm as 

 possible to other animals or to humans. A large 

 part of the program is carried out on public lands 

 in the Western States where the Federal Government is 

 responsible for land management practices on some 

 400 million acres along with more than 300 million 

 acres of adjoining lands under private ownership. 

 In other parts of the country, the program is directed 

 toward development and field testing of new or im- 

 proved control methods, demonstrations, and distribu- 

 tion of information on depredations control through 

 extension facilities of Federal, State, and local 

 agencies. 



Livestock raisers in the West report that losses 

 by predators today, using modern methods of control, 

 generally remain below 2 percent a year. Tree farm- 

 ers throughout the Pacific Northwest are saving up 

 to $18 an acre in reforestation costs by using 

 direct seeding which was recently made possible by 

 Bureau control of seed-eating rodents, using chemi- 

 cally treated seeds--a method developed by the 

 Bureau's wildlife research laboratories. Southern 

 growers of truck crops, especially watermelon grow- 

 ers, have saved money and crops by using similar 

 methods. 



River Basin Studies 



The period following World War II was a time of 

 considerable development on the streams and rivers 

 of the United States. Harnessing our rivers for 

 domestic water supply, power, irrigation, flood con- 

 trol, navigation, and related purposes- -activities 

 that had been suspended during the war- -was pushed 

 with renewed vigor. Scarcely a major stream in the 

 country escaped the attention of various planning 

 agencies. 



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