Page 309 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES 287
bredelkanddeerunderthetagsoftheStateGameCommission. For nearly all the wild game that is accessible, her markets are tightly closed.
We heartily congratulate Missouri on her advanced position on the sale of game, and we hope that the people of Iowa will even yet profit by her good example.
Montana;
Like Colorado and "Wyoming, Montana is wasting a valuable heritage of wild game while she struggles to maintain the theory that she still is inthelistofstatesthatfurnishbig-gamehunting. Itisafactthatten years ago most sportsmen began to regard Montana as a has-been for biggame,andbegantoseekbetterhunting-groundselsewhere. British Columbia, Alberta and Alaska have done much for the game of Montana by drawing sportsmen away from it. Mr. Henry Avare, the State Game Warden, is optimistic regarding even the big game, and believes that itisholdingitsown. Thisispartiallytrueofwhite-taileddeer,oritwas up to the time of great slaughter. It is said that in 1911, 11,000 deer were killed in Montana, all in the western part of the state, seventy per cent of which were white-tails. The deep snows and extreme cold of a long and unusually severe winter drove the hungry deer down out of the mountains into the settlements, where the ranchmen jo^'ously slaughtered them. The destruction around Kalispell was described by Harry P. Stanford as "sickening."
Mr. Avare estimates the prong-horned antelope in Montana at three thousand head, of which about six hundred are under the quasi -protection of four ranches.
The antelope need three or four small ranges, such as the Snow Creek Antelope Range, where the bad lands are too rough for ranchmen, but quite right for antelopes and other big game.
All the grouse and ptarmigan of Montana need a five-year close season. The splendidsagegrouseisnowextinctinmanypartsofitspreviousrange. Fifty-eight thousand licensed gunners are too many for them
The few mountain sheep and mountain goats that survive should have a five-year close season, at once.
The killing of female hoofed animals should be prohibited by law.
Montana has not yet adopted the model law for the protection of non-game birds. Only seven states have failed in that respect.
The use of automatic and pump shotguns, and silencers, should immediately be prohibited.
Montana's bag-limits are not wholly bad; but the grizzly bear has almost been exterminated, save in the Yellowstone Park. vSome of these days, if things go on as they are now going, the people of Montana will be rudely awakened to the fact that they have 50,000 licensed hunters but no longer any killable game! And then we will hear enthusiastic talk about "restocking."
Nebraska:
No other state has bestowed close seasons upon as many extinct species