MONTANA STATE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



23 





FISH, GAME AND FORESTS 



By Glex a. Smith 

 <'hiiir))i(ii} MoiitdiKi Sportsmcn'.'i A.s.'<nci((tio}i 



T 



Glen A. Smith 



|HE habitat of most of the big- game animals in Montana 

 is on forested or partially forested lands. Big game 

 animals which by nature preferred the plains and have 

 been unable to adapt themselves to life in the forests have 

 long since given way to economic development. The exter- 

 mination of the buffalo gives weight to this statement, as 

 does also the plight of the antelope. It is within the forested 

 areas that cool, sparkling streams are found in which the 

 trout and other fish are wont to thrive and it is here, too, 

 that the home of the fur bearing animals has always been 

 found. 



Destroy the forest cover and you destroy the home of the 

 game, the fur-bearers, the home of the birds and the count- 

 less numbers of little folk of the woods. 



Destroy the forest cover and the stream flow is surely 

 modified. Spring freshets may cause destruction to the 

 stream beds, and to the food and the spawning grounds, in 

 fact, to the home of the fish. The water, which otherwise would be held back, 

 may rush off to cause floods in the lower regions with the result that in mid- 

 summer streams ai'e either dry or so low and warm that trout cannot thrive in 

 them. 



So it is that the future of our fish, game, fur-bearers, and the little folk of 

 the woods depends largely upon the cover of our forested lands. 



There is still abroad in Montana and other states the lingering feeling which 

 has existed since the landing of the first settlers, that there are vast areas still 

 untrodden by man wherein game abounds. The inaccessible and wil- 

 derness areas of large magnitude of our forefathers have faded away 

 with the onwai'd march of civilization until today the area is small in- 

 deed that is not within a day or two's travel from the end of an auto road. 

 A recent inventory of timber lands and partly timbered lands in Mon- 

 tana places the total area at 24,842,000 acres, about one-fourth 

 of the total area of the state. The ownership is divided as fol- 

 lows: Private, 5,386,000 acres; State of Montana, 559,000 acres; 

 National Forest, 15,882,000 acres; unappropriated Indian and 

 Military Reservations and National Parks, 3,015,000. Outside 

 of the Indian Reservations these lands are the ranges which 

 may be considered the future home of the big game. 



The job of making these areas contribute most to the health, 

 happiness and prosperity of all the people of the 

 State rests upon every citizen of the State, also 

 State and Federal agencies. Within these tracts 

 there will be call for all kinds of land uses, and 

 ■'ose cooperation among all interested parties will 



iV 



^ft-JNjK 



