20 



Land Planning Report 



scour the streams, wash out plant Hfe, destroy trout 

 shelter and breeding places, and materially reduce the 

 capacity of the streams to produce trout. This serves 

 to illustrate a little-considered relationsliip between 

 big game animals and fish. 



Winter Range Jor Game Animals: Game animals have 

 free access to every acre of the national forests which 

 is suited to them, including the 82,000,000 acres of 

 range used by domestic livestock. In stocking these 

 ranges with domestic livestock, it is the object to 

 provide amply for the needs of game during that 

 period of the year that game is dependent upon forest 

 range for feed. 



Emphasis should be laid upon that last statement. 

 Generally speaking, the national forests would support 

 during the summer season many times the present 

 numbers of game animals. In the Western States, 

 however, most of the best winter ranges are outside 

 the national forests, generally on private lands on which 

 little if any consideration in given to the welfare of 

 game. This presents one of the most important prob- 

 lems to those interested in big game. Obviously, any 

 expectation that a larger number of game animals 

 can be maintained than is represented by the capacity 

 of the winter range is based upon a slender reed of hope 

 which fails to recognize realities. 



To be more specific, it is estimated that national 

 forest ranges in Colorado could support during the 

 summer months 300 percent more big game animals 

 than are now present, if protection and mangement 

 were provided on some 10,000,000 acres of winter 

 range outside the national forests. In this case, as 

 in many others, winter range is the governing or limit- 

 ing factor in game production. The part which winter 

 range plays in game production might be illustrated by 

 many other specific examples. The Targhee National 

 Forest, in Wyoming, however, is sufficient to show the 

 relationship between sheep and big game animals. 

 This forest supports more than 200,000 head of domestic 

 sheep and a small number of game animals, yet inspec- 

 tion by grazing experts mdicates that its summer 

 range is conservatively used by sheep, and that there 

 is an enormous quantity of food available for game 

 animals. The area is deficient, however, in winter feed 

 for game. Cold and severe winters force the game 

 animals to the lower areas on private lands outside the 

 forest, where they are subjected to shortage of feed 

 and other perils. The exclusion of sheep from the 

 national forest would fail to relieve a condition of tliis 

 kind. 



Grazing of sheep, particularly on western ranges, 

 may conflict with ground nestmg game birds, such as 

 grouse, sage hen, and turkey. On national forest 

 ranges, however, the nesting habits of game birds have 

 been taken into consideration in the estabhshment of 



opening dates for the sheep grazing season. This date 

 has been set sufficiently late in the season so that the 

 eggs have hatched and the chicks have left the nest 

 before sheep are admitted to the range. Management 

 of the domestic animals is so regulated as to avoid a 

 concentration of grazing on any particular area. This 

 method greatly reduces the actual conflict and damage 

 to nests which occurs on areas of heavy concentration 

 of domestic livestock, such as lambing grounds, drive- 

 ways, and bedding grounds. 



Control oj Predatory Animals: Predatory annual con- 

 trol is an important factor in wildlife management. 

 This is emphasized by reports for 1932 from field officers, 

 which show that for every deer killed by hunters on 

 the national forests, one and a half deer were killed by 

 predatory animals. This raises the question as to 

 whether game is raised to afford sport or to feed pred- 

 ators. It seems reasonable to assume that the pred- 

 ator may play an important part in assisting in the 

 regulation of numbers of game anmials to the capacity 

 of the range, or may be responsible for a serious decline 

 in the herds. 



That sheep grazing is not an important limiting 

 factor in game production can be illustrated by the 

 situation in the eastern and southern regions. These 

 regions have more than 5,000,000 acres of the best and 

 most natural game range. A total of only 2,600 sheep 

 are grazed on 8 national forests, yet there is a very 

 small game population per acre. About one-fifth of 

 the big game animals on the forests in the Eastern 

 United States are on a Federal game refuge (the Pisgah 

 Refuge), where full protection is accorded under the 

 authority of the Forest Service. But wildlife on areas 

 outside the game refuge is subject to all the perils of a 

 poor regulatory system, including illegal killing and 

 destruction by dogs. 



Fishing Benefited by Forest Management: Fishing in 

 the 60,000 miles of national forest trout streams is 

 also benefited by scientific forest and range manage- 

 ment. These measures tend to conserve water sup- 

 plies and maintain continuous stream flow, so essential 

 to sustain production of satisfactory quantities of game 

 fish. 



Fur Bearers in National Forests: The production of 

 sustained wildlife yields on the national forests involves 

 not only game animals, game birds, and fish, but also 

 fur bearers. Among the latter are such carnivores as 

 the mountain lion, lynx, fox, and mink. Careful study 

 of local biological relationships between fur bearers and 

 both game species and domestic livestock is one of the 

 pre-requisites to the formulation of wildhfe-manage- 

 ment plans. Damage must always be weighed against 

 value, and an effort made to secure maximum benefits. 



The beaver is an excellent example of a nonpredatorv 

 fur bearer. Here again, compHcated relationships exist. 



