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The unit includes all of Lincoln county. Top- 

 ography, climate and vegetative cover blend 

 themselves to make this Montana's most ideal 

 deer range. Wildlife, particularly deer, has al- 

 ways been plentiful. This resource has played an 

 important part in the development of the area. 

 The early explorers and trappers, the miners that 

 followed, and eventually the railroad builders 

 all depended on the wildlife for the stocking of 

 their larders. Between 1898 and 1900, deer hides 

 became legal tender, valued at 50c per hide, and 

 as a result there followed a low ebb in the popu- 

 lation of deer. Even in the latter depression years 

 the deer of this area played an important part 

 in the economic welfare of the community. 



The period between 1911 and 1918 showed 

 a gradual increase in the population of deer. 

 However, it was not until after 1933 that the be- 

 ginning of a remarkable build-up in their num- 

 bers became evident. The creation of the Wolf 

 Creek Game Preserve in 1923, the adoption of 



(Upper) Mule deer fawn of the previous spring-. 

 (lower) The Franklin's Grouse, or fool hen, is more abun 

 dant in Lincoln County then anywhere else in the state. 



the buck law, and the creation of the Graves Creek 

 Preserve in 1933 and the series of favorable years 

 that have followed have been responsible for 

 the development in this area of the greatest single 

 herd of deer in the state. 



The survey conducted by the Fish and Game 

 Department during the winter of 1941-42 disclosed 

 a population of 25,000 deer, 35 elk, and 98 moun- 

 tain sheep. Grizzly bear and mountain goats 

 are only represented in small numbers and 

 are at the present on the decline, while black 

 bear have been gradually increasing since 1923. 



Too little is known of actual hunting pressure 

 in this area, but whatever the losses from legal 

 and illegal hunting, accidental and natural caus- 

 es, it is known that it does not approach the an- 

 nual production of deer, as is evidenced by the 

 steady growth over the past few years. 



As the amount of available winter range 

 will always control the numbers of game ani- 

 mals that can be maintained within a given area, 

 the efforts of the game studies men were con- 

 fined to the 416,000 acres of principal winter 

 range within the area. For a four-month period 

 each year there are confined to this winter range 

 25,000 deer, 35 elk and 98 mountain sheep. Distri- 

 bution over the whole area, as computed from 

 these figures, indicates one deer for every 16.64 

 acres of winter range. Unfortunately there is not 

 an even distribution. On the Wolf Creek-Fisher 

 River area there were found 5,500 deer on 41,600 

 acres, or one deer to every 7.5 acres. A study 

 of range conditions shows that all key species 

 of forage plants, as well as some emergency 

 food species, are being utilized to the point of 

 killing. Similar conditions exist on the winter 

 ranges in the Graves Creek area. The number 

 of deer in these two areas has increased beyond 

 the carrying capacity cf the forage. Other units 

 of range, as shown on the map, are either under- 

 stocked or considered to be properly stocked. 



In making recommendations for management 

 of this unit, it is realized that a considerable 

 amount of factual material is still needed. Such 

 management as is recommended at this time will 

 not go beyond that which can be sub^i 

 by the investigative work carried out in the area. 

 The present as well as the future proposed man- 

 agement practices will be directed toward (1) 

 [50] 



