creatures but climatic conditions, starvation,’ drought, and disease, These 
influences can seldom be defeated or mullified effectively by human interfer- 
ence, so that a species still apparently numerous may actually be doomed to 
extermination and be already beyond the hope of rescue by aid of human devices. 
“It is estimated that there are about 110,000 elk now remaining on 
the continent, 3,500,000 deer of all kinds, 70,900 bears, 50,000 wild t 
keys, and possibly 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 wild dacks of all species. Com- 
parison of these estimates with accounts of the wildlife resources present at 
the time of the coming of the white man affords a dismal realization of the 
extent of the damage done to what once was one of the richest resources of 
North America. 
But the situation is not so discouraging as these comparisons would 
seem to indicate on first analysis. The fact that after 300 years of contin- 
uous exploitation, neglect, and abuse there stili remain considerable popula- 
tions of nearly all common species demonstrates the amazing tenacity of the 
resource and suggests its profound recuperative power under more favorable 
conditions. W. L. McAtee, of the Biological Survey, gives a vivid descrip- 
tion of the ability of mcst species to multiply when freed from destructive 
influences. He states, "The most important factor bearing upon wildlife 
management is the anazing reproductive capacity of living things. ... to 
aid efforts to increase wildlife there is available a reproductive force 
almost explosive in its intensity." 
Many attempts have been made to utilize this force in order that 
favored species--especially those classed as gamé--might increase. The 
Massachusetts colonies adopted ordinances to restrict the kill of certain 
species. Even the Indians maintained "bear preserves" whercon the bear, 
particularly valuable to them because of its: fat, was never molested. 
Following settlenent by the whites this type of effort to increase game by 
restricting the kill appears with increasing frequency, until at the open- 
‘ing of the present century nearly if not all the States and the Canadian 
Provinces had adopted elaborate statutory codes designed to protect wild- 
life and enable it to multiply. The system, however, is only partially 
effective, Failure to realize to the full the intended benefits has been 
due to lax enforcement of iaws, which has been occasioned in turn by neg- 
ligible appropriations of money, by political interference, and by a general 
apathy on the part of the public, all of which are attributable to lack of 
appreciation of the seriousness of the problem confronting State and Nation. 
But a deterrent factor even more potent was the seeming inability 
of wildlife administrators to realize that the reduction of the annual 
toll of game taken by gunners was only one part of a successful restoration 
y oS v Pp 
plan. The missing element was that of planning for land utilization and 
management in such way as to preserve to the greatest degree possible the 
environmental conditions without which the wild creatures could not 
even though otherwise freed from human persecution. It is easy for us n 
to realize, for exanple, that the drainnge and reclamation of about 100,000,000 
acres of marshland in the United States alone operated as effectively to pre- 
a. oe 
