8 



Land Planning Report 



Waterfowl Refuge Area N'eeds: While a sufficient 

 breeding stock of most kinds of upland game, and even 

 of some of the more important fur bearers, seems within 

 relatively easy reach, the plight of out migratory water- 

 fowl is far more critical. Human encroacliment, the 

 primary cause of the great reduction of waterfowl — 

 ducks, geese, and swans — that formerly nested in the 

 Prairie States of the Middle West, and the Prairie 

 Provinces of Canada, and migrated southward in 

 uncounted millions, has already been described. To 

 this primary cause should be added overshooting by 

 an ever-increasing army of hunters. The combined 

 unfavorable influences have led to the diminution of 

 waterfowl at a rapidly accelerating rate, and, unless 

 they can be modified, they must lead to the early 

 extermination of one species after another. In order 

 to check the depletion of breeding stocks of waterfowl 

 common to the United States and Canada, especially 

 the ducks and geese. Federal regulations are annually 

 promulgated under the Migratory Bird Treaty with 

 Great Britain. State laws and regulations tend to con- 

 form with those of the Federal Government; but 

 restrictive regulations alone will not suffice to save the 

 birds. An appraisal of the relative value of many 

 prairie areas before and after drainage brings into relief 

 the vital importance of putting into effect a wildlife 

 restoration program by the Federal and State Govern- 

 ments in cooperation with all other agencies interested. 

 A system of Federal refuge areas, covering especially 

 ihe Middle West and the great migration fiyway 

 through the Mississippi Valley, is planned to take the 

 form of inviolate refuges, on which the birds can breed 

 unmolested, and on which also they will have feeding 

 and resting grounds. 



Wildlife Management on Privately Oumed Lands: 

 Meanwhile the cooperation of private landowners 

 should be enhsted, with a view to restricting as far as 

 practicable the grazing of domestic stock and other 

 destructive practices about prairie ponds and in marsh 

 areas of critical importance to breeding waterfowl. 



On Farms: The relation of small game, as rabbits 

 and squirrels, the fur bearers, and the various species 

 of upland game birds, to private holdings, and especially 

 farmland utilization, is of major importance owing to 

 the vast extent of the land involved. The cultivation 

 of land brings radical changes in environmental condi- 

 tions, and these may be either beneficial or harmful, 

 depending on the varying needs of the different classes 

 of wildlife. Farm operations may provide an abun- 

 dance of food and shelter at certain seasons and leave 

 the game and fur bearers bereft of these prime neces- 

 sities at others. 



The attitude of the farmer toward the hunter has an 

 important bearing in this connection. Farm game, 

 the fur bearers, and the fishes should be regarded as 



having a potential crop value similar to that of any 

 other product of the soil. Since a farm must be 

 managed for profit, there should be recognition of the 

 fact that the farmer has a proprietary interest in the 

 game attached to liis land, and that he is justly 

 entitled to a monetary return, proportionate to his 

 efforts in its behalf. He should be encouraged to 

 expect a profit tluough the sale of shooting or trapping 

 rights, under regulations fixed by the State. The rela- 

 tion of local game, fur bearers, or fishes to other farm 

 crops of the region should be clearly understood. 

 Rabbits, for example, may be too numerous and 

 injurious to field crops or to horticidture in a given 

 locaUty, while a larger number would be harmless or 

 even highly desirable in another place. The food and 

 cover required for wildhfe may be provided by less 

 intensive cultivation of land, in conformity with current 

 human needs. In the Prairie States many hedgerows 

 and bordering thickets, with a higlily beneficial wind- 

 break value, and incidentally affording game food and 

 shelter, were uprooted and displaced by barbed wire in 

 order to make the land yield a Httle more grain in war 

 time. The result has been increased wind erosion, 

 soil exhaustion, and game elimination. Obviously, 

 and in conformity with the shelter belt idea, such 

 hedgerows should be restored for their beneficial effect 

 in the general use of the land. The strip cultivation 

 of land, employed to prevent wind erosion and as a 

 crop reduction measure, coidd also be made the means 

 of increasing farm game. 



On Areas Generally: Wildlife, in its multiplicity of 

 forms adapted to every sort of environment, should be 

 accorded its proper place in the use of land everywhere. 

 It should be recognized as a rich endowment, one to be 

 wisely managed and used, and then passed on unim- 

 paired to future generations. 



Public Areas Employed 

 As Specialized Refuges 



Administered by the Bureau of Biological Survey: 

 Federal areas devoted exclusively to wUdUfe protection 

 under the administration of the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 include more than 900,000 acres of surveyed lands in 

 the United States, besides unsurveyed islands in Alaska, 

 Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. A Ust is given in table I 

 and acreages by States in table II. Most of these 

 refuges are specifically for the protection of birds, but 

 several big-game preserves, on which birds also are 

 protected, are included. 



Administered by the Bureau of Fisheries: The Pribilof 

 Islands, Alaska, of 49,000 acres, are administered by 

 the Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Commerce, 

 primarily for the conservation and utiHzation of the 

 fur seals. 



