LIVE GAME AND FOREST RECREATION 



725 



home in the hills, spies a little 

 chipmunk, his mouth stuffed 

 with grass, springing from one 

 stone to another. The very snap 

 of his motions adds a twinkle of 

 life to a field already pleasing 

 with asters, golden-rod and 

 black-eyed susans. It matters 

 little then whether the life in 

 the scene is a chipmunk, a heard 

 of elk, a black bear or a camp- 

 robber jay, the essential feature 

 is the presence of flesh and blood 

 living things in scale with the 

 outlook. Greater outlooks re- 

 quire big game in numbers to be 

 in proportion while more inti- 

 mate ones may be livened by 

 small animals and birds. 



Forest lands that will be most 

 used in the near future for rec- 

 reation are the most accessible. 

 On the edge of great areas that 

 are still in a more wild state are 

 broad stretches of land which 

 have been used by local residents 



as hunting grounds for many years. Visitors too have 

 stopped there because of the areas being readily reached. 

 It is natural then that these lands first encountered and 



HUNTING AND ITS ATTENDANT OUTDOOR LIFE APPEALS TO ALL SPORTSMEN AND IS THE 

 MOTIVE FOR A GREAT USE OF THE FOREST LANDS. IT IS A FINE, CLEAN TYPE, OF 

 RECREATION, AND HAS AN ENTHUSIASTIC FOLLOWING 



now the first to be used for recreation are not well 

 stocked with game. The lack of wild game living in 

 these areas reduces the recreational use directly in pro- 

 portion to the aggregate return 

 that might have been received by 

 all visitors to this region in any 

 given period if they had been 

 able to see during this stay sev- 

 eral species of the larger wild 

 animals in their native homes. 



Like the wild flowers that are 

 prey of all recreation users who 

 unthinkingly pull them out by 

 the roots, even the lesser animals 

 of the forest are disappearing. 

 Chipmunks fall before the vali- 

 ant rifle of some man out for a 

 day of sport and a continual 

 open season on squirrels and 

 rabbits depletes their once plenti- 

 ful ranks. In their place the 

 timber squirrel and water ouzel 

 are as important landscape values 

 as a whole herd of deer. 



So there is today a lack in 

 some places of this livening of 

 the view by wild things. Rec- 

 reation grounds have their values 

 in the total of the appeal they 

 offer to the visitor. One great 

 value is found in the presence 

 of living game in the woods, 

 not alone for the sport of hunt- 



THE FALLEN MONARCH. HE WAS A BEAUTY OF Ai CINNAMON BEAR, ONE AND A HALF 

 YEARS OLD, AND MET HIS END ON THE SIERRA NATIONAL FOREST IN CALIFORNIA 



