ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 199 



game which wander beyond the protected boundary in the 

 open season will furnish supplies to the surrounding pop- 

 ulation, whilst the sources of supply will be undisturbed. 

 Instead of a general war of extermination being waged 

 in every part of the country, there will be havens of ref- 

 uge from which a permanent source of supply may be as- 

 sured in the future. 



At the regular session of Congress in 1901, President 

 Roosevelt, in his annual message, called the attention of 

 Congress to this subject in the following statement : 



The increase in deer, elk, and other animals in the Yellowstone 

 Park shows what may be expected when other mountain forests 

 are properly protected by law and properly guarded. Some of 

 these areas have been so denuded of surface vegetation by over 

 grazing that the ground-breeding birds, including grouse and 

 quail, and many mammals, including deer, have been extermin- 

 ated or driven away. At the same time the water-storing ca- 

 pacity of the surface has been decreased or destroyed, thus pro- 

 moting floods in time of rain and diminishing the flow of streams 

 between rains. . . 



Some at least of the forest reserves should afford perpetual 

 protection to the native fauna and flora, safe havens of refuge 

 to our rapidly diminishing wild animals of the larger kind, and 

 free camping grounds for the ever increasing numbers of men 

 and women who have learned to find rest, health, and recreation 

 in the splendid forests and flower-clad meadows of our moun- 

 tains. 



Bills have been introduced to carry out this humane 

 suggestion, but up to the present time, only one of them 

 has been enacted into law; but the more the question is 

 considered, the more favorably the proposition is being 

 viewed in the localities to be the more immediately affect- 

 ed and benefited. The choice is plain. Some must be 

 protected or all will be destroyed. 



The Wichita Forest Reserve of 56,000 acres in Okla- 

 homa has been made a game preserve with the hearty ap- 



