May, 192© 
FOREST AND STREAM 
237 
COLONEL GRAVES’ INTEREST IN GAME 
AN APPRECIATION OF THE WORK OF THE LATE CHIEF OF THE FOREST SERVICE 
AND SOME OF THE THINGS HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED IN GAME CONSERVATION 
By CHARLES SHELDON 
T HE resignation of Col. Henry S. 
Graves, Chief Forester, calls for 
more than passing comment by those 
interested in the preservation and per- 
petuation of game. The general infor- 
mation as to Col. Graves’ activities in 
matters of game, seems limited to his 
interest in the elk of Yellowstone 
Park. My frequent contact with game 
protectionists indicates that many of 
them also have little knowledge of what 
he has been progressively accomplishing 
for the general conservation of game. I 
have enjoyed Col. Graves’ friendship for 
twenty-four years, and since I have con- 
stantly known the details of his work in 
behalf of our game and for several years 
have been closely associated with his ac- 
tivities toward that end, I sincerely feel 
that if his services be made more widely 
known, the general understanding of 
them will be helpful in the future to the 
whole problem of game conservation. 
So far back as 1893 the Boone and 
Crockett Club pointed out the necessity 
of placing game under the administration 
of the Forest Service. Since then it has 
been constantly and actively advocating 
this idea. Long before he became Presi- 
dent, Col. Roosevelt emphasized this be- 
fore many associations, and again in 
1901, and many times subsequently he 
publicly advocated it. Gradually all 
game conservationists realized the neces- 
sity of it, and in one form or another ef- 
forts to secure legislation toward this end 
have been attempted. Today intelligent 
opinion is unanimous in behalf of it, but 
up to the present time it has not been 
possible to secure the needed legislation 
to bring it about. Yet a result of real 
significance has been achieved. There 
has been established a general recognition 
of the fact that the preservation and per- 
petuation of our western big game out- 
side of National Parks, is a problem' de- 
pending more than anything else on the 
administration of the Forest Service. 
Has Col. Graves recognized this fact, 
and if so what has been his attitude to- 
ward it and what has he done to include 
game conservation in the general pro- 
gram of Forest Administration? 
A S chairman of the Game Preserva- 
tion Committee of the Boone and 
Crockett Club, I first sought the co- 
operation of Col. Graves in game matters 
in 1912, and I have since been in active 
cooperation with him on these questions 
continuously up to the date of his resig- 
nation. I can positively say that Col. 
Graves has been an active and enthusias- 
tic game conservationist; he has always 
given an undue proportion of his time to 
it; he has studied it with intelligence, and 
he has energetically directed the admin- 
istration of the whole Forest Service to- 
ward that end. He has spared neither 
time nor extra work carefully to con- 
Col. Henry S. Graves 
sider all suggestions brought to him by 
game protectors, and when by investiga- 
tion he has determined what he has be- 
lieved to be right, he has always striven 
with courage to accomplish the needed 
results without regard to criticism. 
His experience in general conservation 
and his knowledge of the whole problem 
have enabled him so to grasp the game 
question that he has formulated a broad, 
sound policy of game conservation; in 
fact, he has been the first who has seen 
clearly the practical relation of the For- 
est Service to it. Every one interested 
in the subject should read and study his 
exposition of it in Recreation, May, 1915, 
and particularly his address before the 
National Parks Conference, published in 
Proceedings of the National Parks Con- 
ference, Washington, 1917. 
Col. Graves has recognized that the ef- 
ficiency of the Forest Administration for 
game conservation is a very practical 
question involving many conflicting inter- 
ests, that it is a political question in each 
state, and a national question in Con- 
gress. It has been necessary to infuse 
an interest in game among over twelve 
hundred forest supervisors and rangers. 
To obtain results has required patience 
and persistence, for, at best, results can 
come but slowly. Col. Graves has been 
progressively solving all these difficulties, 
until he has secured a solid foundation of 
game protective sentiment throughout the 
whole Forest Service, and there is a 
growing recognition among the states of 
the advantages and effectiveness of its 
game administration. Also sportsmen’s 
organizations and all others interested 
are beginning to have a real dependence 
on the Forest Service’s administration of 
the game. For these reasons no backward 
steps could be taken by future Chief For- 
esters. The interested public will demand 
from the Forest Service a progressive 
continuance of the work ..which Col. 
Graves has conducted so enthusiastically. 
T HE practical difficulties which Col. 
Graves has encountered have been 
very real. The States, not the For- 
est Service, have had jurisdiction over the 
game, except that part of it which they 
have entrusted to the Forest Service in 
State Preserves in the National Forests, 
and the powers as game wardens which 
they have delegated to the Forest Rang- 
ers. The only independent power which 
the Forest Service has possessed has been 
that of restricting in behalf of game the 
grazing areas on the public lands which 
might otherwise be wholly given over to 
cattle and sheep. This at once conflicts 
with live stock interests, represented by 
powerful associations, which have a lead- 
ing influence in both State and Congres- 
sional legislation, and also a strong di- 
rection in the moulding of local opinion. 
Then again Forest supervisors and 
rangers must be carefully selected from 
experienced experts trained both in for- 
estry and grazing. A few years ago their 
game protection work was of little im- 
portance. Their time directed to game 
had been in the nature of extra work 
donated for the cause. It is but natural 
that grazing experts should tend to con- 
sider a part of their duties the advancing 
of the grazing interests in preference to 
those of game protection, and to feel that 
their ambitions should lie more in the 
direction of increasing live stock. The 
task of interesting in the game, men of 
such training and tastes has in many 
cases been a difficult one. It could not be 
accomplished by official orders alone. It 
must finally come through the interest of 
the Chief Forester and through his abil- 
ity to inspire such an interest throughout 
the whole Service. Col. Graves has 
steadily been accomplishing this until 
now the spirit of game conservation is 
instilled into the whole Forest adminis- 
tration. The fact that here and there lo- 
cal rangers or supervisors do not sym- 
pathize with game protection so much as 
they do with grazing interests is nothing 
more than what occurs among citizens in 
general. It would be as impossible to 
realize the hope that every forest ranger 
could be a lover of game as it would be 
to expect it of every legislator, citizen, 
or even of every sportsman. When such 
cases have been brought to Col. Graves’ 
attention he has always been willing to 
investigate them and where necessary to 
try to make improvements. Those who 
have criticized him for the seeming in- 
difference of some of his rangers have 
wholly overlooked his difficulties and the 
larger problems involved. 
(continued on page 282) 
