382 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



tional Parks, not even for the fish, which might be expected to 

 precede that for other kinds of animals. The U. S. Fish Commission, 

 in the early days, had no conception whatever of the Yellowstone 

 as a wilderness park, with the fish life maintained as nature left 

 it, and for this reason the Commission was favorable to stocking 

 the waters with various species of exotic fish, and of stocking the 

 streams thoroughly above all falls, where tminhabited by fish, and 

 likewise the isolated lakes. A recent Commissioner of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, Dr. H. M. Smith ('17), has sketched a fish 

 cultural policy for Glacier National Park, and has urged that 

 different waters should be reserved for different kinds of fish ; 

 that there should be no promiscuous planting; that the introduction 

 of non-indigenous species should be prohibited ; and that stocking 

 and fishing should be conducted on a definite policy, which should 

 rest with the federal Bureau of Fisheries. Several of these are 

 admirable recommendations. In my own opinion, however, it would 

 be very unwise to take the administration of the fish out of the 

 hands of the Park officials and place it in the hands of the Bureau of 

 Fisheries, even if the Bureau showed, as it has not in the past, an 

 adequate appreciation of this resource as it should be preserved in 

 National Parks. The Park officials should develop their own staff 

 to handle the fish problems, and they should be more than merely 

 fish culturists, because this work involves many broad biological 

 problems involving other animals than fish, and requiring the ability 

 of trained naturalists. Certain aspects of the fish cultural problems 

 in the Yellowstone have been described by H. '\i. Smith ('20), 

 and Smith and Kendall ('21). In the report of the Director of 

 the National Park Service for 1920, p. 312, it is stated that in the 

 Grand Canyon National Park, "Bright Angel Creek has been stocked 

 during the year with eastern brook trout." Whether this was done 

 by the Park Service or the Bureau of Fisheries is not stated, but 

 it is just such blunders that should be avoided. 



The attitude of the present U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, and of 

 the Park Service itself, has improved somew^hat, but still they have, 

 in the main, adhered to the older policies and standards of making 

 angling available everywhere, rather than to maintaining original wild 

 preserves. I have no doubt that this policy has grown up without 

 much deliberation on their part and certainly not after considering 

 the future value for educational and scientific purposes, of large 

 areas of wilderness waters. The idea that forests with big game 

 animals should be maintained as a wilderness, and that there is an 

 advantage in natural wild waters, appears to be a new conception 



