206 FOREST OUTINGS 



have been built up, only to be wiped out by an unusually hard winter, by 

 disease, or by actual destruction of the habitat through too heavy use. 



Protection from predators and man, artificial restocking, feeding, and 

 other similar measures are all important aids to management, but without 

 a favorable environment wildlife must decline. The planting of millions of 

 fish in streams and lakes is of little avail if the natural habitat has already 

 been destroyed by pollution of the waters, by silting over of spawning beds, 

 or by destruction of the natural food supplies. Pheasants and quail may be 

 introduced but they will gradually disappear again if food, shelter, and cli- 

 mate do not meet their needs. Woodpeckers may decrease with the elimination 

 of dead trees and snags from the forest. Migratory waterfowl may travel 

 the fly ways unmolested by hunters; but destroy their nesting grounds 

 by fire or overgrazing, drain the shallow lakes and marshes upon which 

 they rest or feed, pollute the waters which they use, and their num- 

 bers will decline. Clearly, environment is the major factor in wildlife 

 management. 



Much of the history of wildlife is a record of temporary relief measures 

 to correct an abuse without adequately attacking the broad problem. Ex- 

 perience has taught game administrators that such provisions as the buck 

 law, game refuges, bag limits, and closed seasons, may be good or bad 

 depending on the time and place. The bounty system may lead to the 

 destruction of predators which have a very definite place in management. 

 All such provisions are merely implements that have been used in an effort 

 to correct unsatisfactory conditions, and they have been too long regarded 

 as permanent management practices. The bad condition of many wildlife 

 ranges today is largely the result of dependence on such corrective measures. 

 Legal limitations on hunting may result in overstocking and partial destruc- 

 tion of the habitat; legal stimulus to killing, as exemplified in the bounty 

 system, may lead towards extermination of the predators and consequent 

 overstocking of the species on which the predators formerly preyed. 



Efforts to remove surplus game by trapping have proved hopelessly 

 inadequate. Outright slaughter is both abhorrent and ineffective in dealing 

 with large surpluses. Some progress has been made with regulated kills by 

 modification of the hunting season, etc., but nowhere yet has the principle 



