; ia onderce emoilon proper methods and place all possible safeguards: 
around poisoning operations for the protection of beneficial and harmless 
species, the Biological Survey has insisted upon handling the supervision 
of all rodent-control work for its various cooperating agencies. When 
poisoning campaigns are properly handled and carefully supervised, there 
is little danger of the accidental poisoning of other animals. The records 
_indicate that there have been practically no cases of destruction of other 
forms of life through the ECW rodent-control program. Naturally, the 
supervisors not only must know rodent cmtrol but also be acquainted with 
the habits and status of wildlife in general, and in handling the crews 
they have imparted knowledge to the boys that will be of aaa benefit 
to them and to the Nation. 
Educational programs were provided as regularly as possible, in order 
to tell the CCC enrollees of various wildlife problems. The entire personnel 
of ECW camps were showmm films depicting the work of beavers, showing measures 
for the protection of elk, deer, and other big-game animals, and portraying 
the need of sane, sensible conservation. methods,-in order that the remnants 
of our fast-vanishing forms of wildlife might be preserved. Mimeographed 
leaflets on wildlife management studies were made up by district.agents of 
the Survey for distribution to the boys in order that they might be given 
as broad instruction as possible in the protection and preservation of species 
that are an asset rather than a liability to man's interest. It has been the 
attempt of the Biological Survey to make the rodent-control project a field 
laboratory for the education of the enrollees, and the popularity of the 
project among the boys attests to the wisdom of this course. In many camps 
more applications for places on rodent control crews were received than 
there were places to fill. 
Fortunately, the ECW program came at the most opportune time. The 
extreme drought throughout the West had forced rodents from the open lands 
into the irrigated valleys and mountain meadows, where they became especially 
objectionable in their competition with livestock for the available forage. 
Livestock and rodents together, during dry periods, have in many places al- 
most entirely denuded the surface soil of its vegetation. This has caused 
sheet erosion to ‘start in areas where there would still be ample forage for 
livestock had it not been for the excessive numbers of rodents. On many 
areas, grazing by livestock and rodents combined has practically eliminated 
the native grasses, and these are now being replaced with weeds and poisonous 
plants. Damage in some instances has amounted to at least 75 percent of the 
available forage, and the average loss has probably been approximately 25 
percent. 
On some of the Indian reservations of the Southwest, the condition 
has been pitiful. On the Navajo Reservation, in particular, the Indians 
have carried on a losing fight against drought and rodents. It has often 
been necessary for them to replant their corn three and four times a season, 
since kangaroo rats and other native rodents ‘dig up the kernels as rapidly 
as they are planted. Prior to the spring of 1935, there had been three years 
of drought, and this, coupled with rodent damage, had reduced corn production 
BOE 
