A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1553 



and additional areas are desirable. Extensive areas are, however, 

 extremely important in meeting in part public hunting ground 

 requirements as well as requirements for special purposes. 



Federally owned nonforest lands, in the West particularly should 

 assist in meeting requirements for winter range. There are no 

 satisfactory estimates of the total area needed for this purpose. It 

 would undoubtedly in the aggregate amount to many millions of 

 acres. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GAME COMMISSIONS 



The fifth requirement is the establishment in all the States of 

 active, nonpolitical State Game Commissions, having full authority 

 to regulate seasons, bag limits, license fees, closed areas for any 

 purpose, and other phases of game and wild-life management. This 

 would be of material benefit to nation-wide wild-life conservation. 

 In general there is too little effective effort devoted to wild life con- 

 servation. Regulation of hunting, prevention of trespass, supervision 

 and patrol of areas closed to hunting, and other measures necessary 

 for wild-life administration are entirely inadequate. 



WILD-LIFE RESEARCH 



Basic wild-life research as the foundation of management and 

 administration is of fundamental importance as a sixth requirement 

 in a wild-life program for forest lands. The United States Biological 

 Survey under the McSweeney-McNary Act (45 Stat. 699) is carrying 

 on such research regarding the interrelationships of wild life species 

 especially rodents, predacious animals, game animals, fur animals, 

 birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The present program of research 

 includes relationship of game to other forest-land resources, including 

 breeding and feeding habits, maintenance of numbers and harvesting 

 surplus, wild-life values, and many other phases of wild-life biology. 

 Present work should be expanded by bringing the appropriations 

 for this purpose up to the amount authorized by 1938 and by such 

 additional amounts thereafter as may be needed. 



The Federal Government through its Biological Survey should be 

 in a position to furnish fundamental facts about wild life to its own 

 units concerned with land management, and to aid the several States 

 in the development of their wild-life resources. This is particularly 

 necessary at this time when acute problems present themselves with 

 respect to making wild lands pay their way, and in the rehabilitation 

 of impoverished areas of constantly increasing size and economic 

 burden. 



Several States, notably California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New 

 York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, through their conservation com- 

 missions, game departments, or educational institutions, are conduct- 

 ing important studies of various wild-life problems. Private industry 

 has also conducted far-reaching investigations. Notable examples are 

 the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, and the 

 E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Work of this character, both by 

 State and other institutions and private industry, should be expanded 

 as rapidly as funds can be made available. 



