killed "by this crew on public lands adjacent to farming areas between American 

 Falls and Moreland, Idaho. The work afforded protection to not less than half 

 a million dollars worth of cultivated crops and to more than 75,000 acres of 

 grazing lands. 



The control work carried on by an 5.C.W. crew near i/eber Lake, Calif., 

 in 1933 has oeen responsible for a 50 percent comeback of the grass on a 

 large mountain meadow, which had been made a dust heap because of pocket go- 

 pher workings. The pocket gophers had honeycombed the surface of the ground, 

 and sheep had trampled out most of the grass, while livestock grazing had been 

 reduced to a negligible figure. The restoration in two years wa,s due primarily 

 to the elimination of the pocket gophers. 



To control prairie dogs in Oklahoma, an area, of 47,000 acres in Pawnee, 

 Noble, and Kay Counties was treated through the medium of the E.C.V. The 

 Indian lands here are interspersed with private lands, and the landowners were 

 unable to make any progress in a general clean up because there were insuffi- 

 cient Federal funds to treat the Indian lands until the E*.C.¥. project afforded 

 opportunity to carry on a systematic campaign over the entire area. A good 

 piece of work was accomplished, and this, in conjunction with water develop- 

 ments, made the grass so much better over tnese old prairie dog towns in the 

 spring of 1935 that the Indian Service officials at pawnee received an increased 

 rental of 25 cents an acre or, their grazing lands. On areas where they received 

 50 cents an acre in 1934, they received 75 cents in 1^35, a direct increase in 

 receipts to the Federal Treasury. 



The permanent benefit accruing to the Indians from F.C.¥. rodent con- 

 trol is summed up as follows by an Agricultural Extension agent of the Indian 

 Service, at Anadarko, Oklahoma.; 



"No little stress can be placed upon the financial value of the rodent- 

 control project to the Indians, The Indian enrollees received the labor bene- 

 fit on both Indian and deeded land throughout the reservation cut still greater 

 than the temporary labor relief, the Indian has received a lasting increa.se in 

 the financial rental of his land. Eue to such heavy prairie dog infestation 

 of the allotted land it had become necessary to reduce the rental value of the 

 grass land infested. Now that the prairie dogs have been controlled the rental 

 value will be increased by approximately 10 cents or more per acre becar.se the 

 pastures will regrass and the ca.rrying capacity will be increased. In comparing 

 this increase in rental value with the cost of controlling the prairie dogs, 

 the Indians will reap the financial benefit of the Government expenditures 

 in two or three years. Therefore, this project has certainly been of utmost 

 value to the reservation and the Extension Division in helping the Indian to 

 help himself. " 



Safeguarding harmless Species 



Some persons uninformed as to the need for rodent control and the methods 

 followed by the Eiological Survey in carrying en the work have stated that 

 control by use of poison and C.C.C. workers endangers the existence of otner 

 forms of wildlife. Tl^is, however, is not the case. The Biological Survey has 



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