Page 320 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

298 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
Utah;
The laws of Utah are far from being up to the requirements of the
presenthour. OnestrangethinghashappenedinUtah.
When I spent a week in Salt Lake City in 1888, and devoted some time to inquiring into game conditions, the laws of the state were very bad. At the mouth of Bear River, ducks were being slaughtered for the markets by the tens of thousands. The cold-blooded, wide open and utterly shameless way in which it was being done, right at the doors of Salt Lake City, was appalling.
At the same time, the law permitted the slaughter of spotted fawns. I saw a huge drygoods box filled to the top with the flat skins of slaugh- tered innocents, 260 in number, that a rascal had collected and was offering at fifty cents each. In reply to a question as to their use, he said: "I tink de sportsmen like 'em for to make vests oud of." He lived at Rawlins, Wyo.
After a long and somnolent period, during which hundreds of thous- ands of ducks, geese, brant and other birds had been slaughtered for market at the Bear River shambles and elsewhere, the state awoke suffi- ciently to abate a portion of the disgrace by passing a bag-limit law <1897).
And then came Nature's punishment upon Utah for that duck slaughter. TheducksofGreatSaltLakebecameafflictedwithaterrible epidemic disease (intestinal coccidiosis) which swept off thousands, and stoppedtheuseofUtahducksasfood! Itwasa' 'duckplague,"noless. It has prevailed for three years, and has not yet by any means been stamped out. It seems to be due to the fact that countless thousands of ducks have been feeding on the exposed alluvial flats at the mouth of the creek that drains off the sewage of Salt Lake City. The condi- tions are said to be terrible.
To-day, Utah is so nearly destitute of big game that the subject is hardlyworthyofmention. Ofheruplandgamebirds,onlyafraction remains, and as her laws stand to-day, she is destined to beconie in the nearfutureagamelessstate. Inadryregionlikethis,thewildlifealways hangs on by a slender thread, and it is easy to exterminate it
Utah should instantly stop the sale of game that she now legally provides for, twenty-five shore birds and waterfowl per day to private parties
Deershouldbegivenaten-yearcloseseason,atonce. Allbaglimitsshouldin- stantlybereducedone-half. Thesagegrouse,quail,swans,woodcock,dove,andall shore birds should be given a ten-year close season,—and rigidly protected,—before the stock is all gone.
The model law for the protection of non-game birds should be enacted at once.
The absolute protection of elk, antelope and sheep (until 1913) should be extended for twenty years.
Utah should create a big-game preserve, at once.
If Utah proposes to save even a remnant of her wild life for posterity, she must be up and doing.
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