HISTORY 23 



serves immediately adjoining several of the parks, which from 

 their size and location, are especially important wild-life re- 

 fuges. This applied with especial force to the Yellowstone. 

 The desirability of such legislation is apparent. Certain 

 protected animals, especially the elk and buffalo herds of the 

 Yellowstone, are prone to wander at certain seasons beyond 

 the park botmdaries, seeking fresh grazing grounds, and fre- 

 quently they have been met by hunters and indiscriminately 

 slaughtered. Serious depletion of the park's herds has resulted. 



At the last session of the Idaho legislature a game preserve 

 was created approximately seven miles wide, and running 

 from nearly opposite the southwest corner of the park north- 

 ward to the Continental Divide and the Idaho-Montana line. 

 The act, however, contains the proviso that the preserve shall 

 not be closed to hunting and actually made a sanctuary until 

 the National Government certifies that the southwest corner of 

 the park is made available for irrigation reservoirs, or until the 

 boundaries of the park are so revised as to eliminate the south- 

 west comer and thus make it available for irrigation projects. 



The other states bordering on the Yellowstone, Wyoming, 

 and Montana, also passed game preserve legislation at their 

 192 1 legislative sessions. In both states new ifish and game 

 commissions were created with broad powers, including the 

 authority to establish game preserves in any parts of their re- 

 spective states, whenever, in their judgment, such action is 

 advisable. The Montana law, however, is practically nulli- 

 fied by the provision that the commission cannot establish a 

 game preserve unless the same is petitioned for by 75 per 

 cent of the actual property owners of the district proposed to 

 be set aside as a preserve. 



A large game preserve was created by the State of Colorado 

 in 1919, enclosing the Rocky Mountain Park on three sides, 

 the fourth being closed by the Continental Divide. 



The State of Washington has passed a law somewhat sim- 

 ilar to the Montana and Wyoming laws. Under its provisions 

 county game commissioners can set aside as game preserves 



