MONTANA STATE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



11 



product of the forest and a human necessity, the substitution of manufactured 

 materials, more substantial and durable than wood, leads us to believe the 

 time is not far distant when the timber value of forest lands will decline in 

 favor of other beneficial uses. Man has proven, most visibly, his ability to 

 seriously damage valuable land areas through thoughtlessness and misuse. 

 There are many outstanding examples of that in Montana all of which has 

 served to transform once valuable range land into waste lands forcing the 

 domestic stock into timbered areas where they are in direct competition with 

 the big game animals. 



Programs now underway appear most encouraging for the restoration of 

 these plains lands and their subsequent return to grazing values. Until that 

 is a realization, however, the economic demand will require use of the public 

 lands for domestic stock, but with proper management and use of these lands 

 for that purpose there need be no serious competition between the domestic 

 and big game animals. Grazing may be so regulated as to protect the grasses 

 and brovv'se to the extent natura' re-seeding is possible. Land management 

 is being studied and put into practice as fast as proven plans are effected 

 and with private owners realizing the importance and the necessity of in- 

 telligently managing this, heretofore neglected phase of the program, with 

 public officials making definite progress toward that end, coupled with the 

 keen interest taken by the general public which has been aroused to the neces- 

 sity of immediate action, the future now appears promising. 



Migrating Out. 



There are four major elk herds in Montana — Northern Yellowstone, Galla- 

 tin, Sun River and the Flathead, with smaller but important herds in the Belt 

 mountains and in the Bitterroots. Records of the Fish and Game Commission, 

 U. S. Forest Service and the National Park Service will show that for many 

 years complex problems have arisen relative to the proper management of 

 these elk. With these agencies vitally interested with sportsmen in the wildlife 

 program, a plan was inaugurated during the spring of 1936 whereby the three 

 agencies cooperated in a count of the elk in the Northern Yellowstone herd. 

 A program was mapped out with groups representing each agency covering 



