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W524 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Bureau. of Biological Survey 
Washington, D. C. - May 1936 
RODENT CONTROL AIDED BY EMERGENCY CONSERVATION WORK 
By Stanley P. Young, Chief, Division of Game Management 
The Emergency Conservation Work Program has been of inestimable 
value in the control of prairie dogs, ground squirrels, pocket gophers, 
kangaroo rats, rabbits, and other native rodent pests. The citizens of the 
West have been forced to carry on campaigns for the control of these rodents 
since the settlers first staked out claims on the prairies. The control of 
rodents is as vital to the agricultural interests of the West as is the proper 
spraying of trees to prevent damage by insects throughout the East. These 
small mammals cover the western ranges by countless thousands, and control is 
necessary if crops are to be grown. 
Rodent control is nothing new. .Records indicate that as early as 1808, 
strychnine was shipped by boat around Cape Horn to the Santa Barbara Mission, 
Calif., in order that the early settlers might kill off the ground squirrels. 
A constant fight has been waged ever since, but unfortunately, while the land- 
owners were willing to finance killing the squirrels on their owm holdings, the 
Federal Government provided inadequate funds to take care of the vast areas of 
public’ domain, national forests, Indian reservations, and other Federal holdings. 
When the Emergency Conservation Program came into being, the Forest Service 
the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Division of Grazing, 
and the Bureau of Biological Survey took the opportunity to treat a vast acreage 
that would have been treated years ago had finances permitted. During the 
three years, 1933 to 1935, a total of almost twelve million acres have been 
covered by ECW for the control of these various rodent pests. Rodent-control 
laws on the statute books of several Western States provide that landowners may 
establish rodent—control districts wherein all lands are treated simultaneously 
by paid crews working under the supervision of the Biological Survey. Never be- 
fore the ECW program were there adequate Federal funds to make these laws 
effective by taking care of the infested public lands adjacent to private 
holdings. 
Rodent control is one of thé most popular projects with ECW enrollees 
themselves as well as with the local people benefited. In many cases, crew 
foremen supplied by the Survey took boys who would not work satisfactorily on 
any other type of project and made real hands of them on rodent-control crews. 
The boys liked to work in these crews, as it afforded them opportunity to 
become acquainted not only with rodent control but with the various habits of 
wildlife as well. 
