GAME 203 



valley bottoms were converted into cultivated fields, and the foothills came 

 to be so completely used and often overgrazed by domestic livestock that 

 little if any winter feed was left for game. On these unmanaged ranges 

 outside the national forests, depletion of the forage proceeded rapidly to 

 a point where the balance between summer and winter range, which with 

 increases in numbers became more and more essential to wildlife, was 

 destroyed. Thus, in the West, shortage of winter range in the foothills and 

 on the adjacent plains much of the land is held in private ownership 

 has become the controlling factor in determining the maximum numbers of 

 most species of herbivorous game animals. 



Reliable data as to the number of game on various western national 

 forests at the time they were created and for several years thereafter are 

 not available, but it is known that the game population trend of the first 

 10 or 15 years on most national forests was definitely upward. Beginning 

 with 1924, methods used in taking the big-game census were greatly 

 improved and it is known that, taken altogether, the big-game population 

 on the western national forests has almost trebled since. In spite of general 

 open hunting seasons for deer and extensions of hunting season in the elk 

 country, deer have increased 190 percent and elk have increased almost 

 160 percent in the last 15 years. Bighorn sheep and grizzly bear are the 

 only two species that have shown a decrease. These significant over-all 

 increases on national forests, though made up in some instances of 

 increases on areas already overstocked, are in sharp contrast to actual 

 decreases on some other areas, and illustrate how these animals respond to 

 the better protection and management given them during recent years. 



On much national-forest land and in the summer, more big game 

 than is now present could be cared for. This is especially true in the Ohio 

 Valley, in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas, and in other 

 parts of the South. 



Overstocking of deer on parts of the Huron and Manistee National 

 Forests in Michigan; the Nicolet and Chequamegon National Forests in 

 Wisconsin; the Malheur in Oregon; the Fishlake and Dixie in Utah; the 

 Allegheny in Pennsylvania; the Pisgah in North Carolina; and the Modoc 

 and Lassen in California is a result solely of shortage of winter forage. 



