Managing Utah's Big-Game Crop 



573 



The use of acorns as food for hu- 

 mans is not uncommon. The Indians in 

 California grind the acorn kernels to a 

 fine meal or flour and leach out the bit- 

 terness with warm water. The meal is 

 then dried and stored to be used later 

 as a cooked mush or baked bread. In 

 the Eastern States, the white oak and 

 chestnut oak acorns had been used 

 similarly by Indians. Generally, the 

 acorns of the white oak group are 

 sweeter than those of the black oak 

 group, and the acorns of the swamp 

 chestnut oak are said to be especially 

 sweet and edible. In Europe many 

 species of acorns are eaten, and in 

 times of food scarcity boiled acorns are 



used as a substitute for bread. In 

 Spain, acorns of the Gramont oak are 

 regarded as superior to chestnuts. 



For those interested in hunting, a 

 good crop of acorns can attract deer, 

 turkeys, and squirrels. 



It is possible that someone with in- 

 genuity may discover a new method of 

 preparing acorns for human consump- 

 tion maybe even a delicacy. 



ALBERT A. DOWNS is a silviculturist 

 at the Lake City Branch of the South- 

 eastern Forest Experiment Station. He 

 has done silvicultural research for 10 

 years in the Northeastern and South- 

 eastern States. 



MANAGING UTAH'S BIG-GAME CROP 



D. IRVIN RASMUSSEN, DAVID M. GAUFIN 



Fifteen persons of every hundred 

 men, women, and children in Utah 

 bought a license to hunt big game 

 in 1948. One deer was killed by each 10 

 individuals in the State all told, more 

 than 64,000 deer and 750 elk. The 

 management of big game, the recrea- 

 tion that hunting provides, and the 

 services connected with it form a truly 

 important business. A visitor to Utah in 

 late October the time of the hunting 

 season, the time of a general exodus to 

 the mountains from city, town, farm, 

 and ranch in car, truck, buckboard, 

 wagon, and pack outfit feels in the 

 air how general and how enthusiastic 

 is the response there to hunting. 



It was not always so. Deer have been 

 much more abundant in recent years 

 than at any time since white men first 

 visited the area. We do not know ex- 

 actly how all the factors and forces 

 operated that were responsible for 

 producing this wildlife resource, but we 

 do know its history, which is the story 

 of early depletion and of man's efforts 

 and success in restoring the herds to 

 numbers exceeding even those that the 

 pioneers found. 



The restoration of numbers has not 



meant the end of the big-game prob- 

 lem, nevertheless. Instead, situations 

 have developed where the animals 

 have become too abundant for their 

 own good and have come in conflict 

 with ranching and livestock grazing. 

 New, almost revolutionary, programs 

 have therefore become necessary to 

 guarantee a continuation on a perma- 

 nent basis of both the herds of big game 

 and the production of suitable forage 

 on the ranges. 



THE FIRST WRITTEN RECORD of the 



native animals and plants in the ter- 

 ritory that is now Utah is contained 

 in the report known as Father Escal- 

 ante's Journal, the story of the travels 

 of a small party lead by two Franciscan 

 friars that left Santa Fe on July 29, 



1776, and returned there January 1, 



1777, without having reached their 

 objective of Monterey, in California. 

 The party spent September and Oc- 

 tober of 1776 in the Utah country. 



Father Escalante told of killing a 

 buffalo near the present Colorado- 

 Utah border, taking large trout with 

 a bow and arrow in Utah streams, and 

 seeing many grouse, waterfowl, and 



