78 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



stock industry. Several million acres are involved. 

 It seems certain that, whatever may be the motives 

 involved, this is a step toward a compromise in the 

 Public Domain between the conflicting claims of wild 

 game and domestic cattle. The two can no more 

 both thrive on the same lands than can different gov- 

 ernmental authorities rule identical territory without 

 conflict. 



Wherever in our western country domestic ani- 

 mals and wild animals are in competition for the 

 range, the creatures of the wilderness will disappear 

 without the protective intervention of man. In Na- 

 tional Parks only is the attempt made to preserve 

 original conditions and balances of life, but their 

 areas are too small to count for much in the wild 

 life conservation programme of a country the size 

 of ours. In National Forests wild animals are con- 

 served wherever other objectives permit, subject to 

 the game laws of the states in which the forests lie. 

 In the open range of the Public Domain, nature takes 

 her course subject only to state laws very difficult 

 to enforce. Against competing cattle and sheep, to 

 say nothing of predatory men and animals, the game, 

 great and small, furred and feathered, which once 

 densely peopled the great plains of the far West, 

 scarcely survives. 



The situation is complicated by the accepted 

 theory that the states own all wild life within their 

 boundaries, even those on federally owned lands. 



"A system of grazing regulations similar to 



