592 



in 1947. The trend is still upward. In 

 the same time, the population of black 

 bear has increased from 500 to 1,200. 

 From an estimated 2,600 in 1938, the 

 number of wild turkeys went up to 

 3,400 in 1947. 



Always the emphasis has been on 

 wildlife production for public use, and 

 the withdrawal of large acreages from 

 hunting and fishing has been discour- 

 aged. Many closed areas have been 

 opened to provide additional hunting 

 grounds. The dispersal of hunting 

 pressure over the full available land 

 area is considered desirable, because 

 every acre withheld from use tends to 

 build up pressure elsewhere. Even in 

 the Big Levels Federal refuge area of 

 the George Washington National For- 

 est, certain parts have been opened for 

 deer hunting during limited periods, 

 and the advisability of harvesting wild- 

 life on the entire refuge is being seri- 

 ously considered. 



A comparison of big-game harvests 

 shows that 40 black bear were taken on 

 the two Virginia forests in 1938, com- 

 pared to 112 in 1947. Total deer kill 

 for 1938 was 230 animals, compared to 

 1,383 in 1947. Big-game animals killed 

 on the cooperative area are tagged and 

 examined at checking stations, so that 

 an inventory is had each year. 



Hunting, fishing, and trapping on 

 the cooperatively managed area in 



of Agriculture 1949 



Virginia has increased from 70,000 

 man-days a year in 1938 to more than 

 one-half million in 1947. The sale of 

 national forest hunting and fishing 

 stamps increased from 11,690 in 1938 

 to 41,388 in 1947. 



Another measure of the success of 

 the program is the support it has 

 among sportsmen and the general pub- 

 lic. As evidence, several counties in the 

 national forest area, acting through 

 county boards of supervisors, have en- 

 tered into formal agreements with the 

 State and the Forest Service to supply 

 additional funds for extension of wild- 

 life management under the program. 



THE LONG-BARRELED SQUIRREL RIFLE 



has vanished from the mountains of 

 Virginia, along with the deerskin- jack- 

 eted pioneers. In their place have come 

 busy farmers, businessmen, doctors, 

 lawyers, schoolboys not pioneers, but 

 men and boys who get from hunting a 

 diversion from the worries of modern 

 life and who look to the Virginia 

 Plan the Blue Ridge Plan as an as- 

 surance that the privilege of fishing and 

 hunting will be theirs for always. 



THEODORE C. FEARNOW is a native 

 West Virginian. He joined the Forest 

 Service as a wildlife biologist in 1935. 

 Previously he worked with the Division 

 of Scientific Inquiry, United States Bu- 

 reau of Fisheries. He was chief of the 

 Division of Fisheries in the West Vir- 

 ginia Conservation Commission from 

 1927 to 1933. 



I. T. QUINN, for 17 years, was com- 

 missioner of Conservation of Game, 

 Fish, and Seafoods for the State of 

 Alabama. He was president of the In- 

 ternational Association of Game, Fish, 

 and Conservation Commissioners from 

 1927 to 1928; president of the South- 

 ern Association of Game Officials from 

 1931 to 1939; and president of the 

 American Fisheries Society fro'm 1937 

 to 1938. During the war he worked in 

 Washington, D. C., and returned to 

 conservation work as executive director 

 of the Virginia Commission of Game 

 and Inland Fisheries in 1946. 



