MONTANA STATE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



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PROGRESS MADE 



By J. W. CARNEY 



STATE FISH AND GAME WARDEN 



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J. W. CARNEY 



«HE Montana fish and game commission presents this 



biennial report covering a period of two years, 1933-34, 



feeling that despite general economic conditions and 



those affecting Montana's game regions, it has made marked 



progress and is at least on a par with its neighboring 



western states. 



It has been no small task to keep in step with the 

 times owing to the nation-wide depression and the drouth. 

 Tlie depailment has been able, however, to keep its head 

 above water, to go ahead when the "going was tough" and 

 to emerge with a financially sound state game depart- 

 ment and a healthy condition in Montana's game life. 



We were forced to face immediate problems, as other 



western states were facing them. Although handicapped by 



a decrease in license sales during the last two years, the department went on, 



still keeping on a cash basis, and built up defenses for general drouth attacks 



upon our fish, game and birds. 



Streams were stocked with game fish under the supervision of Kenneth 

 MacDonald, fisheries superintendent, and birds were planted in all the counties 

 by Joe Hendricks, supervisor of the state game farm. Montana, despite the 

 depression, despite even the conspiracy of the elements, went ahead instead of 

 "keeping even' 'or going backwards. In many of our projects we were aided 

 substantially by the civil works administration and the ftnleral emergency relief 

 administration, and to these federal organizations we are very grateful. 



The state fish and game department is a self-sufficient organization and does 

 not receive one cent of tax money. It is supported solely and entirely by the 

 sportsmen of the state, through the sale of licenses, the sale of confiscated guns 

 and fi.shing equipment, and by fines imposed for game law violations in Montana. 

 True, Montana has shown a decline in receipts during the past biennium, but 

 we have kept on a sound financial basis — better even than many of our sister 

 states. 



The commission maintains fourteen fish hatcheries in the state of Montana, 

 a state game farm at Warm Springs that has distributed more than 20,000 birds 

 during the last two years, as well as the wardens and personnel of the depart- 

 ment. Although revenues have fallen off during the depression and the dry 

 years, the state department of fish and game has gone ahead, curtailed econom- 

 ically, but still maintained high standards of efficiency as seen in the reports 

 of this biennial. 



Due to the creation and maintenance of game preserves and the destruction 

 of predatory animals by fe<lerul and state trappers, big game in Montana is on 

 the increase. Although the 1S>34 season was one of the poorest from the standpoint 

 of hunting conditions, reiM)rts received by the department show a substantial deer 

 kill and the elk kill, although smaller than formerly, stands out as exceptional 

 considering the mild weather and lack of snow. 



