The swift and merciless exploitation of the buffalo only hastened 
an inevitable. process, however, for in tine the Indians must have retired 
before the constantly augmented numbers of settlers and the herds of cones- 
tic cattle would then have. usurped.the buffalo pastures... Tne his Osta On 
the decline of this animal: furnishes one of the most ci Grae ee exanples 
the relationship: éxisting.betwecn wildlife conservation and land wtili>. 
zation. Years of actual experience prove that these herds on Fedorel pre- 
serves can ts increased indefinitely; that the buffalo might even. be restored 
to original abundance locally, nrovided land were available. 
€ same is »robably true of any form ef wildlife... The principle | 
ea Tele ae ial wildlife-restoration nragram now being conducted 
oL lL Survey. ‘This program sceks the establishment of a systen 
3 ing ebout -7,500,000 acres of land and water to furnish 
habitat for inc easing the population of otnde and animals and providing a 
surplus not now existent but one that will offset the losses from regulated 
shooting and other causes. Since 19264 the ae on the Biclogical Survey's 
Bison Range in Mortana--bat one of five similar ranges administered by the 
Bureau--has produced neerly 1,400 animals. in excess of the carrying capacity 
of the range. That surphis and those from the other preserves, had they 
been released and allowed to reproduce under protection, would now have | 
repopulated a considerable area, These increases, however, have contributed 
little or nothing to any broad restoration program, because the continued 
utilization of range lana fo purposes leaves now no rocm at all for 
the hereditary monarch of 1 
Exploitation Era Closing 
Me -era vor wale ite oxploitati ion is.now drawing to a close. I%s 
last stages are marked by the incrcasing determination manifested by State 
and Federal agencies, by sportsmen and conservationists, and by the general 
public to apply methcds and SUE AG STORIE ve policies of a positive navumesror 
preventing further unnecessary losses wildlife and for restoring the velu— 
able species to the maximum abundance ee with the conditions of a 
modern civilization, For many native American species the. change of attitude 
has come too late to save them from extinction, . The vanished species in- 
clude the great auk, the Pallas eee the Labrador duck, the passen- 
Ber pigeon, the-heath hen, the Eskimo curlew; end the Cee ina Sesaree 
Of the mammals, the ginnt mink has gone and the grizziy bear has been 
nearly vexberminated im the United states; pRopens. Other ispecies outing 
trumpeter swan, canvasback duck, redhead, upland plover, whooping crane, 
golden plover, and ivory—billed woodpecker, to list. a few of those heed 
ened—--may yet be added to that much lamented category of treasures forever 
lost to us. 
Even though some of these birds and mammals still number thousands 
and are common erioush to suggest the idea of abundance, it is possible 
that these long years of abuse heve already inflicted fatal damage through 
the reduction cof breeding stock to a point where the annual increase by 
reproduction is less than the numbers annually destroyed by natural enemies 
and other causes. These inimical agencies incluce not only the predatory 
1 
Oo 
H 
