PLEA FOR THE PROTECTION OF WILD GAME 



By Warden Ben S. Patton. 



In reporting the game conditions of Clackamas county for the 

 Oregon Sportsman, will say that nothing has been done that has shown 

 up to better advantage within a short time than the planting of trout 

 fry in the streams of this section — principally the Clackamas, Molalla 

 and their tributaries, including several good streams and lakes that 

 formerly contained no fish. A great deal of this work has been accom- 

 plished by the help of the people of the different localities, and it has 

 been the best means of enlisting their support in protection generally. 

 It is very noticeable that as soon as certain people of a section begin 

 to help to plant fish in the streams, procure and liberate game birds, 

 and work of that kind, from that time on they take more intelligent 

 and active interest in the fish and game of the locality. With the 

 number of fish that have been planted in the above streams the fishing 

 has held up well in spite of the increasing number of fishermen, and 

 the fishing today is better than it was four or five years ago. But with 

 the new electric lines running out from the towns, good automobile 

 roads, and trails into the mountains, that are making all parts of them 

 accessible, it is going to take constant effort to keep up both the fish- 

 ing and hunting, and will require a grade of knowledge and application 

 that will have to be a new departure from some of the old contracted 

 ideas of game preservation that have prevailed over this state. 



As to the deer of the mountain regions of this locality, while there 

 are still a good many, they have been reduced to away below what 

 such a region could easily support. There is an extensive mountain 

 country to range over that is too rough for settlement, with an abund- 

 ance of feed such as deer use. For years past adverse conditions have 

 existed that have brought about the reduction of the deer; but they 

 are conditions that can, and will be, gradually eliminated. It is not 

 an easy task to kill off hordes of wild predatory animals in a rough, 

 inaccessible region that prey on deer and other game; and it takes 

 time for the people of a community to change from a rambling, pot- 

 hunter class, that often kill for the sake of killing, to a class of sports- 

 men and citizens that look upon the deer and other wild life as one 

 of the chief attractions of the mountains, woods and fields, and some- 

 thing to be conserved and not destroyed. 



Of the forces that have contributed most to the destruction of deer 

 and other game of the mountain region of this section, I will put the 

 predatory animals — the timber wolf, cougar, wild-cat and coyote, at 

 the head of the list. The winter hunting that only a few years ago 

 was so general, has run them a close second. Of all the classes of 

 winter or other illegal deer hunters, the hound running element have 

 been the most destructive. They are an element that have no more 

 regard for the game than the wolf or coyote, will kill does and fawns 

 just as quick, and hunt out of season when they think they can get 



