212 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



government, through the Bureau of Land Reclamation, under' 

 took the job, and in a short time half the lake bottom was ready 

 for the farmers. But there were no farmers. The land boom had 

 collapsed, the Klamath nesting ground for ducks had been re' 

 duced to a mere fraction of its former sise. Now the federal 

 government is trying to restore some of the lake that has been 

 drained. 14 



Just how important this water is to the waterfowl you 

 could see if you should take a Southern Pacific train from 

 Portland to Dunsmuir, California. The track winds along the 

 shore of the lake, and as the train chugs along, great shoals of 

 birds rise from among the reed beds, or streak out from the 

 shore to free water like so many torpedoes. 



There are many other areas located along the flyways which 

 have for one reason or another been destroyed for the birds. 

 For them it has been as disastrous as if a great oasis of the 

 Sahara like Timbuktu should suddenly become a drifting sand 

 dune. Just now a program of restoring these migratory bird 

 oases is getting well under way. Most of this work is being 

 done by the federal government, and it is being carried out by 

 the Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture. 



MARINE WILD LIFE 



The salt water fish is a good example of wild life used as a 

 commercial resource. At one time the fresh water fish were 

 also a commercial resource; but today, with the exception of 

 the fish caught on the Great Lakes, their primary use is to 

 provide recreation. For that reason, the problem of the fresh 

 water fish is different from that of the sea fish. 



So far as the salt water fish, such as the cod and halibut, are 

 concerned, the problem is chiefly not to catch too many. This 

 is also true of the shallow water fish such as the mackeral and 

 swordfish. These are the most valuable of the sea fish; and since 



14 National Resources Board Report, op. ctt. 



