BIG GAME OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 115 



Methods of Game Preservation 



Q , For the preservation of game, two principal methods 



and Game are employed. These are: 



Preserves (^^ The establishment of game laws which restrict the 



season of hunting, the number, age and sex that may be killed; the 

 requiring of licenses, often graded so as to discourage non-resident 

 hunters; the prohibition of the use of unfair hunting methods such 

 as dogging, hunting on snow or using automatic guns; the restriction 

 or prohibition of the sale of game, etc. 



(fe) The establishment of game preserves or game refuges where 

 all hunting is prohibited at all times of the year. 



All the provinces have game laws and, with some minor modifi- 

 cations, they would all be fairly satisfactory and doubtless accomplish 

 excellent results if adequate machinery for their enforcement were 

 provided. 



Nearly all the provinces have game preserves. The four western 

 provinces have all adopted a game preserve policy, with, however, some 

 important differences in method. 



In Manitoba, specially designated portions of the Dominion Forest 

 reserves have been constituted game preserves. This is an excellent 

 method and one employed also in various States. Its complete success 

 depends upon the care and knowledge with which the boundaries are 

 established, the thoroughness with which they are marked on the 

 ground, and the degree of protection afforded by the regulations for 

 these preserves and the officers employed to enforce them. 



In Saskatchewan, the Game Act automatically makes all forest 

 reserves game preserves. This is a very faulty method. Forest 

 reserves are not selected nor are their boundaries established with 

 game preservation as their object. The principles upon which forest 

 reserves are created have little in common with the principles that 

 should govern the establishment of a game preserve, and the method 

 employed in Saskatchewan is wholly negative in character, amounts 

 simply to a shifting of responsibility and, only by the merest accident, 

 could it result in the creation of really adequate game preserves. 

 Moreover, in spite of failure to administer those already established, 

 it promises to result in the establishment of a great deal larger area 

 of game preserves than there is any justification for. 



In Alberta, a similar negative policy of shirking responsibility for 

 direct action has been adopted. The Alberta Act makes all Dominion 

 parks created by the Dominion Government, game preserves. This is 

 not quite so objectionable as the Saskatchewan system, but it has some 



