INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY EFFORT 293 
serves should not only appreciate their responsibilities, but 
also their opportunities, and, as far as may be possible, a 
constructive policy should be carried out in the matter of 
game protection. It is not sufficient merely to pay periodi- 
cal visits for the purpose of hunting and fishing, but every 
effort should be made to increase the wild life and improve 
the environmental conditions. 
An incessant campaign against predatory animals and 
birds should be carried out; attention should be given to 
available food supplies and to their improvement, and the 
conditions with regard to cover can frequently be improved. 
In all such preserves the possibility of ground and other 
fires should always be remembered, and every precaution 
taken to prevent them within the reserve, or to check them 
should they start outside. Fires are the most destructive 
of all factors that adversely affect our wild life, inasmuch as 
they destroy everything—breeding-stock, food, and shelter 
—and a lifeless desolation remains. 
Throughout Canada there are many areas reserved by 
clubs and individuals for duck-shooting. ‘These reserves 
usually include marshes and small ponds and lakes, or the 
shores of lakes. Many of the areas to which I allude can- 
not be classed as game or wild-life reserves in the true sense 
of the word; on the contrary, they appear to be maintained 
chiefly for the purpose of attracting and killing the greatest 
number of birds with the least expenditure of trouble; the 
only encouragement the wild fowl receive consists of the 
grain that is distributed in order to secure larger bags, and 
the only protection existing is the protection of the rights 
of the owners of the reserved area. On the other hand, 
there are numerous private reserves which have been estab- 
lished chiefly for duck-shooting, in which every effort is 
made to attract ducks by planting suitable food-plants, to 
propagate them, and to protect them from their enemies. 
Such reserves are rendering valuable aid in conserving our 
