CHAPTER X 



RESERVES FOR GAME AND WILD LIFE IN CANADA 



Under the peculiar conditions that exist on the North 

 American continent, where the opening up of enormous 

 areas of land by agricultural development, the penetration 

 of virgin forest by railroads, lumbermen, and prospectors, 

 and the reclamation of the wilderness have led to wide- 

 spread destruction of the haunts of our wild life, with a 

 consequent disappearance of the greater portion of it, other 

 measures than the promulgation of game laws, which at 

 the best are difficult to enforce completely, are necessary 

 to insure the preservation of what wild life remains. Of 

 such protective measures by far the most important is the 

 establishment of wild-life reserves, refuges, or sanctuaries 

 in which the native manmials and birds are protected. 

 Such wild-life reserves should include a sufficient area to 

 provide ample natural summer and winter range for the 

 wild life that they are intended to protect. They should 

 be, and as a rule are, unsuitable for agricultural develop- 

 ment. Nor should they include mining or other commer- 

 cial properties that are likely to interfere with their purpose. 

 So far as is possible the boundaries of such reserves should 

 be well defined, and the necessary steps should be taken to 

 secure within the reserve areas the required protection to 

 the wild life they contain, and all protective measures 

 should be rigidly enforced. 



THE NATIONAL PARKS 



We have reason to be proud of the withdrawal from settle- 

 ment and establishment by the Dominion Government of 

 extensive tracts of land as national parks, for the purpose, 



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