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United States Department of the Interio 

 Pish and Wildlife Service 



Wildlife Leaflet 217 



•-^ JIJL1419|2 ^ 

 US. Department of Atrlcutij^B 



Washington, D. C. 



ATDril 1942 



WAS AMD VJILDLirS 



By W. E. Grouch 

 Chief, Division of Game Management 



There has "been much speculation re^rding the effects that World 

 Vfar II will have on wildlife. Vifildlife administrators, conservation 

 organizations, members of Congress, a.nd others have made inqioiries as 

 to the prospects and also concerning the possible effect of the war on 

 funds available for the protection and restoration of v.-ildlife. In 

 order to give somewhat intelligent answers to these questions, a stiidy 

 was made of the effects of Vi/orld War I. Data on various factors over 

 a continuous period of years, beginning before the last war and ending 

 after the war, were collected fron: State game departments and other 

 sources. These made possible an enlightening analysis of the situation 

 during the last war. It was not possible to obtain accurate informa- 

 tion from all *of the Sta.tes as several did not have game departments 

 in the year 1916, some of the departments were young at that time with 

 incomplete records, while others of the State agencies could not locate 

 records covering the last war period. It was possible, however, to get 

 sufficient data from which to make a definite analysis of the subject. 

 Many persons have predicted that one effect of the present war wo^Ild be 

 to decrease materially the funds available for wildlife management. 

 Contrary to this belief, the data compiled from 22 States from which ac- 

 curate figures were obtained showed that there was on the whole a grad- 

 ual increase in funds available to the States for wildlife conservation 

 through the previous war period, and a. much larger increase immediately 

 following the war. Stating this in definite figures, there was an in- 

 crease in funds of 5 percent from 1916 to 1917, 8 percent from 1917 to 

 1918, and 20 percent from 1918 to 1919. Only three States out of the 

 22 indicated any appreciable decrease in funds for wildlife purposes, 

 while the others reported either a nearly constant amo^mt of funds or 

 an increase in funds during the war period. 



It has been often stated also that the present war would cause a 

 decrease in the number of hunters and sport fishermen. Yet the data 

 covering the last World War showed that there was a gradual increase in 

 the number of hunters and sport fishermen during the war and a pro- 

 nounced increase immediately following. The increases were 1.6 percent 

 from 1916 to 1917, 2.6 percent from 1917 to 1918, and nearly 50 percent 

 immediately after the war from 1918 to 1919. Only four States reported 

 a slight decrease. 



