248 
forest and stream 
JUNE, 1917 
Indiscriminate Slaughter Has Resulted in the Practical Extermination of the Buffalo 
something entirely apart and subject to en¬ 
tirely separate control. This has been un¬ 
fortunate for the game. With the exam¬ 
ple before us of the efficiency shown by the 
Forest Service, in safeguarding from 
spoliation and making useful to the public 
the resources of grazing and timber in its 
custody, it is evident that if it were given 
guardianship over the game on the forests 
the result would be of far-reaching im¬ 
portance. The trained corps of forest 
rangers and guards can and do now serve 
with practically no extra cost as wardens 
over the game, and a practical constructive 
program could be developed, not only for 
conserving the game, but for restoring it 
to areas where it has disappeared, and in 
increasing the supply to the full capacity of 
the available summer and winter grazing. 
The control of the grazing of cattle and 
sheep on the national forests being in the 
Forest Service, gives that organization 
the absolutely essential knowledge of sum¬ 
mer and winter grazing conditions that is 
required if the game is to be safeguarded. 
The use of the forest for domestic stock 
will continue on a great scale, but with 
good management great numbers of game 
animals may exist in the same forests. 
In a program for rehabilitating the game 
resources of the national forests, where 
there is abundant room for an enormous 
number of game animals without seriously 
interfering with the present livestock in¬ 
dustry, three things are essential: 
(1) A series of national game preserves 
located in favorable situations and dis¬ 
tributed in national forests throughout the 
West in order to provide breeding sanctu¬ 
aries where game may increase and sup¬ 
ply the surrounding areas. 
(2) Cooperation between the Forest Ser¬ 
vice and the states wherein national forests 
are located, whereby the Forest Service 
shall designate the parts of the forests 
where hunting may be done and the num¬ 
ber of animals that may be killed in any 
particular forest or section of forest each 
season, the states meanwhile to have full 
control over issuing hunting licenses and 
to receive all fees therefrom. The states 
would thus benefit by the services of the 
trained force of forest rangers and guar¬ 
dians acting as Federal game wardens to 
guard the game resources from spoliation 
just as they now protect the trees and the 
grazing in the interest of the country at 
large. , 
(3) A cooperative arrangement between 
the Forest Service and the National Park 
Service whereby the game service in the 
national parks and the national monuments 
shall be coordinated with that of the Forest 
Service to the same end, that the game 
supply may be increased and perpetuated. 
N ECESSITY for cooperation is evi¬ 
denced in the elk situation in the Yel¬ 
lowstone Park. Within the park there 
is a superabundance of summer grazing 
where several times the present number of 
elk can find abundant forage for all time 
to come. The high altitude of the park 
and the severity of the winters there are 
such that winter grazing is limited, par¬ 
ticularly in severe weather, necessitating 
that a large proportion of the elk pass 
outside the limits to secure sufficient for¬ 
age. The park is surrounded on all sides 
by national forests on which the forester 
is authorized to grant grazing permits for 
livestock. The increasing settlement of the 
West and the growing demand for grazing 
permits indicate that within a comparative¬ 
ly short time there will be a call for every 
acre of grazing available, up to the very 
limits of the park. Should permits to this 
extent be granted and the range stocked 
to its full capacity the areas now available 
to elk for winter grazing would be elim¬ 
inated. As a result of this only one or two 
severe winters would be sufficient to deci¬ 
mate the Yellowstone elk herds. The 
Forest Service has wisely foreseen the ap¬ 
proach of this danger and for several years 
has been planning to safeguard the future 
of the elk in this area by reserving a suffi¬ 
cient area for their winter grazing. In 
order to do this intelligently, however, it is 
necessary to know the number of elk in the 
park and the location of the ranges to 
which they naturally drift in winter. Sev¬ 
eral counts of the elk herds in the Yellow¬ 
stone have been made, and an arrangement 
effected whereby the Forest Service ^nd 
the National Park Service will make a 
joint census this month [March] when the 
elk are on their winter range, the park and 
forest rangers working under the direc¬ 
tion of a representative of the Boone and 
Crockett Club. (to be concluded) 
Hunting the Rocky Mountain Sheep Might Even Be Revived 
