44 



WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



and broken as to be unfit for domestic 

 stock, and the remaining 50 per cent is 

 so located that the available stock will 

 have to be driven long distances to the 

 areas; so far, in fact, that all the profit 

 will be lost in this drive. Why not 

 have game here? Here is a region sur- 

 rounding an area intensely used > for 

 recreation as a summer resort, or it is 

 the watershed of some stream from 

 which a town or village derives its 

 water supply. 



It is not advisable to graze stock on 

 such lands — first, because the people 

 protest against it; and, second, there is 

 a chance of stream pollution. Why not 

 have game here? Here is an area where 

 there is a very small per cent not suited 

 to domestic stock and yet suited to 

 game ; also, a portion of the stock range 

 must act as winter range for the game 

 developed upon the smaller area. Would 

 it not be advisable to protect and cul- 

 tivate game upon the smaller areas, and 

 so allot your stock upon the larger area, 

 to provide winter feed for the game, 

 and thereby get a more complete use of 

 all of the land? In most cases the 

 amount of growth necessary to leave to 

 perpetuate your forage values would 

 furnish winter feed for the game. 



Here, again, is a range where there 

 is a large amount of forage and browse 

 growth, and even when the areas are 

 fully • stocked with cattle or sheep, or 

 even sheep and cattle, there are both 

 forage plants and browse brush that the 

 domestic stock do not eat, and game an- 

 imals will eat these plants and thrive 

 among your domestic stock. Why not 

 protect the game and cultivate it here? 



Will It Pay?— The question is asked, 

 Will it pay to protect and develop game 

 in the National Forests? My answer to 

 this is that it will pay, and pay big in- 

 terest on the time and money put into 

 it. There is not a State today that has 

 put money into game protection but has 

 received big interest on the investment. 

 It will pay, on a dollar-and-cents basis, 

 just as big returns as any stock busi- 

 ness ; and the value of such game pro- 

 tection to the citizens of the State and 

 Nation will be beyond a money value. 

 What man among you has not felt, after 

 a long grind at any kind of work, the 

 keen pleasure of preparing for a trip 



in the open? It matters not whether 

 you are a hunter. The wild life is a 

 part of the open, and its presence there 

 will add many fold to its attractiveness. 

 With what keen joy does the individual, 

 returning to his work from such a trip 

 in the open, tell of the game he has 

 bagged, the wild life he has taken pic- 

 tures of, or just observed! 



Recreation Value of Game. — Dr. Hor- 

 naday has said : "The great value of the 

 game birds of America lies not in their 

 meat pounds as they lie upon the table, 

 but in the temptation they annually put 

 before millions of field-weary farmers 

 and desk-weary clerks and merchants 

 to get into their beloved hunting togs, 

 stalk out into the lap of nature, and say, 

 'Begone, dull care!' And a man who 

 has had a day in the painted woods, on 

 the bright waters of a duck-haunted 

 bay, or in the golden stubble of Septem- 

 ber, can fill his day and his soul with 

 six good birds just as well as he can 

 with sixty." 



And so it is with the game animals. 

 This last summer I was with a party 

 for several days in the mountains of 

 Colorado, just above Grand Lake. The 

 real excitement of the trip, that caused 

 the greatest thought and the biggest 

 topic of conversation, was the day we 

 came around a point of rocks to see be- 

 low us, on a long, sweeping slope of 

 bald land, four big-horn sheep standing 

 out like so many sentinels of that life 

 amid the surroundings which stirred 

 our very souls. 



Within the last two years the State of 

 Wyoming has received from $20,000 to 

 $25,000 from the sale of game licenses, 

 and the cost of administering the game 

 department has been about half that 

 amount. The purchase of residence li- 

 censes at $2.50 and the non-residence 

 license at $50 each is, of course, a small 

 portion of the money actually spent in 

 the hunting region. It has been found 

 that parties going out in the immediate 

 neighborhood for deer would average 

 from $30 to $36 each, while in the more 

 attractive big-game sections non-resi- 

 dent parties, amounting to from 1 to 

 200 yearly, would spend from $400 to 

 $600 each. 



The State of Wyoming has a law 

 prohibiting the leaving in the woods the 



