GAME IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



COMMON SENSE VIEWS OF A PRACTICAL MAN 

 By Smith Riley, U. S. District Forester, Denver 



This paper, written by Forester Riley, out of years of practical obser- 

 vation and experience, sheds a flood of light over the whole subject under 

 discussion, and answers correctly scores of questions that naturally arise 

 in the inquiring mind. It appears in full in the Proceedings of the Society 

 of American Foresters for April, 1915, pp. 175-182.— W. T. H. 



What should be the Federal govern- 

 ment's policy governing the protection 

 and development of game in the Na- 

 tional Forests? This question has been 

 asked many times of late. * * * So truly 

 do a large number of western people 

 feel that all the game will go that they 

 look upon the enforcement of effective 

 game laws as a needless expense to the 

 State. 



Owing to the obligations that the Fed- 

 eral government assumes in the estab- 

 lishment and the maintenance of these 

 National Forests, it must outline and 

 operate under a definite, clear-cut game 

 policy. 



Areas Worthless for Domestic Stock. 

 — There is hardly a township of the 180 

 millions of acres of National Forest 

 lands but what one-fifth to one-third is 

 suitable only for game range. I mean 

 by this that of this vast acreage at least 

 one- fifth to one-third cannot now, and 

 can never, be used by domestic stock. 

 This, of course, does not take into con- 

 sideration the large areas now inacces- 

 sible that will eventually be used for 

 stock grazing. To my mind, the fact 

 that deer were fairly plentiful in the 

 Uintah Forest of Utah during those 

 years when the ranges were so heavilv 

 stocked with sheep that the animals 

 came off the range in the fall poor, the 

 existence of elk on the South Fork of 

 Rio Grande in the Rio Grande Forest 

 of Colorado in the verv heart of a range 

 section that the cattle and sheep men 



fought over before the forest was cre- 

 ated, is ample proof there is room for 

 the game as well as the domestic stock. 



Domestic Stock and Game. — It has 

 been gravely pointed out that the Fed- 

 eral government should go slow in this 

 matter, because it would never do to 

 adopt a policy detrimental to the stock- 

 man's interests. > There are in every 

 community a thousand and one cham- 

 pions for domestic stock, so we can 

 rest assured that the sheep and the cow 

 and the horse will be placed upon every 

 acre where any one of them will thrive ; 

 in fact, the people of the West are com- 

 mencing to believe that they may see 

 both sheep and cattle upon the same 

 area in spite of the many bitter strug- 

 gles of the past that would tend to show 

 this impossible. If game is to hold its 

 own against domestic stock, it must 

 have the biggest champion to be had — 

 the Federal government. 



The line to be drawn between the 

 game and domestic stock is not hard 

 to define. The sentimental side of the 

 question can be eliminated, as far as 

 the National Forests are concerned, and 

 we should look at the matter entirely 

 from a practical dollar-and-cents basis. 

 In other words, here is an area not now 

 grazed by stock. It will be a matter 

 of eight or twelve years before it will 

 come into use, if at all. Why not have 

 game here until domestic stock needs 

 the range? Here is an area where more 

 than 50 per cent of the land is so rough 



