DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS FOR 1947 41 



A review of these 2,129 cases which were prosecuted reveals the following 

 information which may presumably be of further interest: 



Fish and Wildlife Overseers laid the charges in 2,068 instances; convictions 

 were registered in 1,979 of these, 1,718 of which were subsequent to seizure of 

 equipment on observance of infractions, and 261 following investigation of 

 information which disclosed infractions. The charges laid by Overseers in 85 

 cases, 67 following seizures and 18 following investigation, were dismissed; and 

 in the remaining 4 cases, all following seizures, the charges were withdrawn. 



Pro\incial Police Constables were responsible for the laying of charges in 

 26 cases, in all of which this action followed seizures, and in all these cases con- 

 victions were registered. 



Joint action by Overseers, Deputy Game Wardens, Provincial Police 

 Constables and/or Alunicipal Police Constables was subsequently followed by 

 the laying of information in 35 cases, all of which were successfully prosecuted 

 and convictions recorded. The charges in 29 of these cases were as a result of, 

 and subsequent to, seizures and the observance of violations, while in the remain- 

 ing 6 cases the informations were laid following the investigation of evidence 

 of infractions. 



Wildlife Management 



Genend 



The over-all picture with respect to wildlife management in Ontario during 

 the hrst warless year is not entirely satisfactory. Wartime prosperity had 

 resulted in a steady increase of hunting pressure, despite the absence of a large 

 proportion of able-bodied men in military service, the severe shortage of sporting 

 goods, especially ammunition, and the drastic gasoline rationing. The present 

 year finds all restrictions removed, our fighting men all home and absorbed into 

 civilian occupations, and a general high level of wages and almost complete 

 employment. Similar conditions prevail in the United States. The result is an 

 intensit\' of hunting pressure, both from residents and non-residents, such as 

 our Province has never before known. 



Coupled with increased hunting, there are a number of factors at work 

 that are inimical to wildlife. In farm lands, game has alwa\s been dependent 

 on patches of weeds and brush for food and cover, especially such species as 

 European Hare, Pheasant and Hungarian Partridge that do not frequent wood- 

 lots. These patches have always been a blight on the landscape from the point 

 of view of clean farming, but, fortunateh' for the game, realh- energetic farmers 

 have not been too numerous. We now live in the age of chemical weed and 

 brush killers, and what was once wished for in the way of clean farming, now 

 becomes {)ossible. We also have rural engineers keeping open roads that were 

 formerly allowed to drift in winter, and each jjatch of weeds and brush on the 

 roadside is a potential snowdrift. ObviousK-, wildlife management can never 

 exist at cross-purposes with scientific agriculture. If the old food and shelter 

 patches should go, then go the\- must, but it becomes our task to develop tech- 

 niques for providing food and shelter that will not be obji'ctionable. 



Of a similar nature are local increases of pasture land, con\'ersion of waste 

 land into tobacco farms, and penetration of the vital deer winter range by 

 farming which ma>' superficiall\- leave the country practically imaltered, because 

 miles of barren hills still exist, while actualK' clearing the swamps which were 

 the sole support in winter of deer ranging the whole area in hunting season. 

 They are offset b>- some gains, chiefl\- in the matter of reforestation, and in the 

 management of woodlots but wildlife management still remains largely a matter 

 of executive orders rather than an established [lart of our land use, though we 

 know that wildlife is a product of the land, not of regulations. 



