FORESTS AND GAME PRESERVATION 



By Ottomar H. Van Norden, of the Camp Fire Club of America 



IT HAS been said in jest of the Camp 

 Fire Club of America apropos of our 

 Game Protection activities, that "we 

 are an association of criminals organ- 

 ized for the prevention of crime." Per- 

 haps it is that our too short days on 

 wilderness trails, beside limpid lakes or 

 under beetling mountains has shown us 

 what is the real spirit of the wilder- 

 ness and has made us eager missionaries 

 in the cause of the spreading of the 

 gospel of the forest. 



Three centuries ago our ancestors 

 found on coming to this continent a 

 vast forest stretching unbroken from 

 the Atlantic to the Mississippi. They 

 had come to make this new land their 

 home and the great forest was a serious 

 obstacle to be cut and girdled and 

 burned that the land might be cleared. 



When they became involved in war- 

 fare with the Indians the forest pre- 

 sented a new menace it furnished a 

 perfect cover for their enemies. And 

 so they destroyed it. secure in the 



knowledge that it was inexhaustible, 

 and with it in the same manner they 

 destroyed its wild life its myriads of 

 birds and mammals. 



Later, with the growth of population, 

 there came a demand for lumber and 

 then followed that orgy of destruction 

 of the 19th century, when we used a 

 little and wasted much, when we lum- 

 bered without thought of the future, 

 and the always ready fire closely 

 followed the lumberman, and left desola- 

 tion. 



So now in this 20th century our 

 game and forests are about gone. Like 

 the Prodigal we have spent our patri- 

 mony but unlike him we have no 

 indulgent father to divide our older 

 brother's heritage with us. We must 

 eat the husks. 



Have you ever considered how for- 

 tunate for us it was that our ancestors 

 found a bleak coast, a dark primeval 

 forest, and resourceful and dangerous 

 enemies instead of sunny and fertile 



In the Mountain Sheep Country. 



portions of the national forests in the west are ideal for big game hunters and will become more so, 



as it is planned to make sections above timber line wild game refuges. 



