80 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



states can pass and enforce laws regulating hunting 

 and fishing on the lands, still they have no power to 

 dictate other uses, such as grazing, since the bulk of 

 the land is in Federal ownership." 



"In no case that I know of," writes Smith Riley, 

 one of our closest observers of wild life conditions, 

 "has the national government taken steps to improve 

 the unsatisfactory food conditions of those Public 

 Lands covered by state game refuges as a result of 

 public pressure to protect the wild life. There has 

 been no action to lead state game officials or game 

 protective associations to believe that any other than 

 the present conditions can be expected, except per- 

 haps a further gradual destruction of food plant val- 

 ues by uncontrolled grazing. 



"It is estimated that there are between twenty 

 and thirty thousand antelope scattered through six- 

 teen states in the West and that this number is a 

 very small per cent of the number the ranges where 

 these animals are located can support. The bulk of 

 the antelope range is on the Public Lands, and one 

 branch of the national government has been work- 

 ing with the state authorities to protect and improve 

 the conditions for the herds by enforcing the closed 

 season in every state where they exist and destroy- 

 ing those animals and birds which prey upon them. 

 The most needed action looking to the perpetuation 

 of these rare, valuable game creatures is to insure 

 to them a food supply throughout the year and this 

 on lands which are publicly owned and of such a 



