]| 89 conservation is not enough 



this close to a city there is some wilderness left. But if the 

 city continues to grow it will probably not be left much 

 longer. Deer and javelinas adapted themselves quite hap- 

 pily to the saguaro forest, nibbling the smaller cacti and 

 browsing on the fruit and leaves of desert shrubs. Moun- 

 tain lions and bobcats kept the population within reason- 

 able limits without exterminating it. But for the larger 

 mammals the question of how to live in the desert tends 

 to become unanswerable when the desert is inhabited by 

 man. 



Some of us might be better reconciled to this fact if the 

 war to the death between man and the creatures whom 

 he is dispossessing really was necessary to man's own suc- 

 cess. But much of the war is not and sometimes it actually 

 militates against him. To protect his sheep and cattle, the 

 rancher tries to destroy all the mountain hons and bob- 

 cats. He comes so near succeeding that the coyote popu- 

 lation grows larger. He then enlists government aid to 

 poison the coyotes and when the coyotes are almost elimi- 

 nated the ground squirrels and the gophers, on which the 

 coyotes fed, begin to get out of hand. 



Somewhat belatedly, certain ranchers are beginning to 

 talk about protecting the coyote. If they ever get around 

 to it they will probably, in time, have to begin protecting 

 the mountain lion also. But by that time it probably will 

 be too late. If they had only been content to be a little 

 less thorough in the first place, we might all, including 

 the wild creatures, be better off. And a natural balance is 

 pleas ant er than an artificial one, even when the artificial 

 can be made to work. 



That this is no mere sentimentalist's fancy is attested by 

 the fact that at least one ranchers' association representing 



