rUR CULTURE ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS 605 



Beavers have been attractive, aside from their values, to man the 

 world over. A curious tradition prevails among the Flathead Indians 

 concerning beavers. These animals so celebrated for their sagacity, 

 they believe, are a fallen race of Indians who have been condemned 

 by the Great Spirit on account of their wickedness, to their present 

 form of brute creation. At some future period, they believe, these 

 fallen creatures will be restored to their proper state. No phase of 

 ihe forest work in the United States offers more stimulating features 

 than that of defining the limits of wild life culture in relation to for- 

 estry. Visualize the mind activities of those two rangers in planning 

 and executing this planting project. The preparation for the trip; 

 the three days of unsuccessful operations on one creek, the move and 

 the successful issue. The oft-occurring thought to these rangers of 

 how the beaver family is faring through the seasons. The keen ap- 

 preciation of trips into the locality to observe the operations of the 

 family. Could there be any more pleasurable duty for a live, active 

 man whose work keeps him in the open 



I have traveled for days on end through the Forests of Wyoming 

 over lands of first quality for fur animal production. A trapper at 

 Valley Wyoming wrote me not long ago that he had out 200 miles of 

 trap lines and he was not doing so well because the marten were scared. 

 That while there was lots of feed, such as rabbits and squirrels, in the 

 region where he was trapping, the marten were not there and he 

 guessed they had just been trapped out. In fact, he believed the only 

 hope for the marten is a closed season. 



The Forest Service has an agreement with the Wyoming State Game 

 Department which provides that all applications for trapping permits 

 will be submitted to the forest supervisor concerned for consideration 

 and recommendation before action is taken. Now it is true that the 

 present State game warden, dealing in generalities, has expressed him- 

 self in favor of the destruction of all fur animals because he claims 

 they prey upon game birds. Upon the other hand, the Wyoming law 

 is so worded that the issuance of trapping permits is discre^jonary and 

 there are some eight forest supervisors supported by observant rangers 

 conversant with all animal range types in the State. Surely an active 

 force of such size in a fertile field should be able to bring forth suffi- 

 cient evidence to convince one man of the unsoundness of his position. 

 Game birds were plentiful in the Shoshone National Forest when I 



