Page 188 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

166 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
Of course it is impossible for wild animals of great size to exist in coun- triesthatarecoveredwithfarms,villagesandpeople. Undersuchcon- ditionsthewildandthetamecannotharmonize. Itisafact,however, that elk could exist and thrive in every national forest and national park in our country, and also on uncountable hundreds of thousands of rough, wild, tiinbcred hills and mountains such as exist in probably twenty-five different states. There is no reason, except man's short-sighted greed and foolishness, why there are not to-day one hundred thousand elk living in the Allegheny Mountains, furnishing each year fifty thousand three- year-old males as free food for the people.
The trouble is,—the greedy habitants could not be induced to kill only the three-year-old-males, in the fall, and let the cows, calves and breeding bullsalone! BysensiblemanagementtheRockyMountains,theSierra Nevadas and the Coast Range would support enough wild elk to feed a millionpeople. ButweAmericansseemutterlyincapableofmaintaining an^^where from decade to decade a large and really valuable supply of wildgame. OutsidetheYellowstoneParkandnorthwesternWyoming, the American elk exists only in small bands—mere remnants and samples of the millions we could and should have.
If they could be protected, and the surplus presently killed according to some rational, working system, then every national forest in the United States should he stocked ivith elk! In view of the awful cost of beef (to- day 10>2 cents per pound in Chicago on the hoof!), it is high time that we should consider the raising of game on the public domain on such lines that it would form a valuable food supply without diminishing the value of the forests.
Just now (1912) the American people are sorely puzzled by a remark- able elk problem that each winter is presented for solution in the Jackson Holecountry,Wyoming. Drivensouthwardbythedeepsnowsofwinter, the elk thousands that in summer graze and grow fat in the Yellowstone Park march down into Jackson Hole, to find in those valleys less snow andmorefood. Now,ithappensthatthebestandmostoftheformer wintergrazinggroundsoftheelkarecoveredbyfencedranches! Asa result, the elk that strive to winter there, about fifteen thousand head, are each winter threatened with starvation; and during three or four winters of recent date, an aggregate of several thousand calves, weak yearlingsandweakenedcowsperishedofhunger. Thewintersof1908,
1909 and 1910 were progressivelv more and more severe; and 1911 saw about 2500 deaths, (S. N. Lcek)^
In 1909-10, the State of Wyoming spent $7,000 for hay, and fed it to thestarvingelk. In1911,Wyomingspent$5,000more,andappealedto Congress for help. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Lodge and others, Congress instantly responded with a splendid emergency appropriation of $20,000, partly for the purpose of feeding the elk, and also to meet the cost of transporting elsewhere as many of the elk as it might seem best tomove. Thestarvingoftheelkceasedwith1911.
Outdoor Life magazine (Denver, Colo.) for August, 1912, contains an