502 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



in overpopulation and in many instances in depleting the forage 

 supply on the refuge. This accentuates the importance of having a 

 system of management which will provide for a game supply on all 

 forest lands susceptible to such use, except in cases where game or 

 wild life of any given kind must be eliminated for specific reasons 

 or for purposes not admitting of wild-life use. 



The game policy of the American Game Association proposed at 

 the seventeenth annual game conference in December 1930 was the 

 first general presentation of a plan for systematic game management. 



ADEQUACY OF PRESENT PROVISIONS FOR MANAGEMENT 



As has already been indicated in the discussion of social and 

 economic values of wild life, the present information as to wild-life 

 populations and annual kill are fragmentary and inadequate. There 

 is much fundamental biological research needed in regard to wild- 

 life interrelationships, breeding and feeding habits of various animals, 

 diseases, etc. German foresters recognize the value of such informa 

 tion. Their management plans as to regulation of kill are based on 

 accurate game counts. The annual kill is carefully regulated, both 

 quantitatively and qualitatively. 



Such intensive management would not now be generally practical 

 in this country, where we are concerned with vast areas of land in 

 contrast to the small, intensively managed areas in the German 

 forests. While conditions here are radically different from those in 

 Germany, we also need definite and reliable information regarding 

 our wild life resource upon which to base sound management. 



Table 3 shows the distribution of the land upon which wild life 

 abides, according to ownership or control, whether in Federal, State, 

 county, municipal, or private. This diversification of ownership of 

 land by individuals and Federal and municipal governments, coupled 

 with the fact that the 48 different States, with widely varying legisla- 

 tion regarding wild life, claim regulatory power over the wild life 

 within their boundaries, obviously results in a complicated situation 

 having endless ramifications affecting national or local aspects of 

 wild-life management. 



TABLE 3. Areas forest land usable for game management, by type of ownership 



and region 



Figures probably very incomplete. 



