570 



program. The work is done under a 

 plan that is prepared by the State and 

 the Forest Service and reviewed each 

 month by the ranger and the local State 

 game warden or other official. 



The game manager posts the bound- 

 aries, puts out salt for game, controls 

 predators, and helps with the fish and 

 game stocking. He checks licenses and 

 permits for hunting and fishing, and 

 checks the catch and kill. In places 

 where the forest is dense and openings 

 are needed, the manager cuts out the 

 invading woody growth in small clear- 

 ings and creates new clearings as di- 

 rected. He maintains old sawmill sites, 

 log landings, and similar openings so 

 that these provide wildlife edges in 

 the years between cutting operations. 

 He plants species that are needed for 

 cover and food, and otherwise en- 

 courages the type of growth that is 

 helpful to turkey, deer, grouse, squirrel, 

 and other game under management. 



Land-use programs are closely co- 

 ordinated with the wildlife needs. Tim- 

 ber sales are administered so that 

 stream-side vegetation is maintained. 

 Occasional den trees are left. An at- 

 tempt is made to maintain a variety of 

 forest growth, such as persimmon, 

 grape, dogwood, and haw, for wildlife 

 food. Some species, like white oak, 

 black walnut, and shagbark hickory, 

 are recognized as valuable for their 

 wood and for the food they produce for 

 wildlife. 



Some of the work is paid for from a 

 special fund that is collected by the 

 States and shared with the Forest Serv- 

 ice. The Southeastern and Southern 

 States have enabling legislation, which 

 is permissive rather than mandatory, 

 for the collection of special fees. In Vir- 

 ginia, a State law requires that all 

 hunters and fishermen who use the na- 

 tional forests possess a national forest 

 stamp, which costs $1. The money so 

 collected is used in cooperation with 

 the Forest Service to finance and oper- 

 ate the program. 



The cooperative wildlife-manage- 

 ment programs in national forests in 

 the Western States have usually been 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



concerned with big game, and partic- 

 ularly with adjusting the herds to the 

 yearlong food supply. Surveys have 

 been made of the winter range condi- 

 tions and the composition and vitality 

 of the herds. Areas have been reserved 

 for wintering deer or elk, although fre- 

 quently the animals drift off the na- 

 tional forests in winter. All available 

 information has been pooled to de- 

 velop management plans for big 

 game. 



In some places coordination is ob- 

 tained by a series of meetings, perhaps 

 forest by forest, at which State and 

 Federal employees review information 

 on the abundance of game and fish, 

 study conditions of stream and range, 

 and discuss, among other matters, the 

 relation of seasons to forest-fire haz- 

 ards. Available data is weighed and 

 used to prepare joint recommendations 

 on seasons and bag limits for consid- 

 eration by the State fish and game 

 commission; management plans on re- 

 stocking of fish, beaver, and other wild- 

 life are brought up to date; and pro- 

 vision is made for the distribution, 

 camping needs, and other problems 

 that are normally associated with han- 

 dling the thousands of hunters and 

 fishermen who use the national forests. 



Everywhere the land available to 

 wildlife is being reduced through the 

 extension of towns, cities, industries, 

 and transportation facilities, and the 

 burden on the forest areas grows. Al- 

 though our present forests are better 

 suited to such species as the deer and 

 grouse (because of the irregularity of 

 the forest cover, including openings 

 and different age classes of trees), and 

 there are undoubtedly more deer, bob- 

 whites, rabbits, and opossums now than 

 300 years ago, the forests are less 

 productive of the species that benefit by 

 old-growth stands, such as tree squir- 

 rels, turkey, marten, and other true 

 forest animals. The stream conditions 

 generally have declined in productive 

 capacity. 



It behooves us, therefore, to give 

 constant thought and effort to improve 

 these all-important factors of habitat 



