506 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



directly attributable to deterioration of habitat. Quail formerly 

 inhabited the valley in great numbers, and the finest part of their 

 habitat was in the brushy foothill regions where there was abundant 

 food and cover. Overgrazing of these foothill areas has destroyed 

 much of the herbaceous vegetation and low shrubs that furnished not 

 only cover but also quail food. Good land management, restoring 

 the productive capacity of the land for grazing of livestock, would 

 coincident ally restore the conditions favorable to quail. 



Good wild-life management on forest lands in the ultimate analysis 

 is simply one phase of good multiple-purpose forest land management, 

 which seeks for the highest quality and quantity output of products, 

 uses, and services. In general the practices that contribute to the 

 perpetuation and development of other products, services, and uses 

 may be made to contribute to the welfare of wild life. 



FOREST LAND USED BY GAME 



Recent estimates by the Forest Service place the total forest-land 

 area of the United States, in round numbers, at 615 million acres, 

 variously distributed by region and ownership, as already shown in 

 table 3. 



FEDERALLY OWNED OR CONTROLLED 



The Federal Government owns, or controls, in round numbers, 153 

 million acres of forest land, or approximately 25 percent of the total 

 area of forest lands in the United States. In the three western regions 

 the Federal Government's share is 67 percent of the total forest land 

 in the West. In the eastern regions the Federal share of forest land 

 is only 2 percent. The importance of these figures lies in the fact 

 that Federally owned forest lands, particularly the national forests 

 and the national parks and monuments, in general constitute the 

 largest and most consolidated areas susceptible of wild-life manage- 

 ment, particularly in the West. 



Of the Federal area, national forests embrace 107,773,000 acres, or 

 70 percent; national parks and monuments, 4,420,000 acres, or 3 

 percent; and the remaining 40,528,000 acres, or 27 percent, is made 

 up of Indian reservations, public domain, and other lands. All of 

 these areas comprise large acreages of protection forest where the 

 forest growth is mainly wclland and chaparral. On the public 

 domain there is no administration of game except such as may be 

 done by the States. Indian reservations, generally speaking, are 

 susceptible of game management. However, on some reservations 

 peopled by primitive Indians, game and fish constitute a relatively 

 important source of food supply to these Indians, whose right to 

 continue to hunt and fish at all times as they have been accustomed 

 to for generations has been guaranteed under treaty provisions. It is 

 understood that as Indians increasingly adopt the white man's 



Eractices they do not rely on game for food so much as formerly. 

 n the western regions, 26,311,000 acres are in game refuges, Federal 

 game preserves, and other areas wholly or partially closed to hunting. 

 These great acreages of Federal forest land, most of which is well 

 consolidated in extensive tracts, offer the very finest opportunity in 

 the country for the development of the wild-fife resources for public 

 benefit. The environmental conditions for game and other wild 

 life are of the best. All of this land except the public domain areas 



