30 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



because zoning prevents scattered settlement with its high 

 education and road building expenses. Reduced public ex- 

 penditures means, of course, reduced taxation and therefore 

 is popular with the taxpayers. It is more difficult to win 

 public support for a reform of the tax system so as to in- 

 duce wise land use but nevertheless worth trying. 



Outright purchase remains chiefly the field of the federal 

 government because that agency at the present time is the 

 only one with sufficient funds to finance a widespread pur- 

 chase plan and also because the federal government's efforts 

 towards bringing about better land use must be limited 

 almost entirely to this method. 



Conclusion: Wild life is offered the best chance for in- 

 crease at the present time that it has had in many a year. 

 The men engaged in drafting the present land plan are fully 

 awake to its needs and sympathetic to the idea of expanding 

 the breeding areas. Reduction of crop areas to balance 

 production means a shift from agricultural to recreational 

 and timber uses. Wild life will undoubtedly be made an 

 important secondary use in these areas throughout the coun- 

 try. 24 While it is true that due to lack of proper scientific 

 data the program is faced with certain difficulties, notable 

 among which is the determination of the quantity of land 

 to be taken from agricultural use, the specific areas, and the 

 specific uses to which it may be put, nevertheless, it can not 

 but result in giving wild life a much more important place 

 in the national economy than it has previously occupied. 



Whatever steps are taken to aid wild life conservation, 

 however, must be made to fit into the constitutional pattern 

 of our government system. Therefore, in the next chapters 

 the sphere of the national government and of the states will 

 be outlined and the work of each within their respective 

 spheres described. 



24 See Report of the Land Planning Committee, National Resources 

 Board, December 1934, Govt. Print. Office. 



