318 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



servation in the interest of sport, agriculture, science, 

 and sentiment. 



Except when ambitious personalities contend 

 for control, creating parties ; or conservationists for 

 preservation resent killing for sport, alleging cruelty ; 

 or the concrete-minded laugh raucously at "senti- 

 mentalists," stirring recrimination; a fine spirit of 

 common purpose (if not always for common rea- 

 sons) combines all parties behind wild life recovery, 

 inspiring effective work. 



Let us examine a few of the situations and poli- 

 cies involved in so excellent a quest. 



Unfortunately, when National Forests and Na- 

 tional Parks were laid out no thought was given to 

 their wild inhabitants. Timber conservation and 

 scenic preservation governed respectively their crea- 

 tors' minds, and it happened that summer ranges 

 and winter ranges for elk, deer and other ruminants 

 were seldom included in the same reservation. Sum- 

 mer forage in the show places is plentiful, but winter 

 forage usually lies in the open ranges of the unre- 

 served and unappropriated public domain in which 

 grazing, without regulation, goes always to the 

 strong. What boots it to preserve our wild-life 

 herds in summer if they are to starve on the over- 

 grazed competitive ranges in winter? Establishing 

 sanctuaries, narrowing bag limits, and shortening 

 hunting seasons is small help to game continuity 

 compared with furnishing good winter range. 



Even on the best of ranges, summer or winter, 



