Page 370 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

348 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFB-
to the public; but it has been demonstrated that this is not the case. The people of the state firmly object to the havoc that is unavoidably wrought by logging operations in beautiful forests. The state does not yet need any of the money that could be derived from such operations. The chief anxiety of the public is that hereafter forest fires shall be pre- vented,nomatterwhatfireprotectionmaycost! Theburningofcoal on any railway operated through the Adirondacks should be made a penal offense.
Montana:
In 1911 Governor Norris, Senator Cone and the legislature of Mon- tana, at the solicitation of W. R. Felton, L. A. Huffman and others, created the Snow Creek Game Preserve, fronting for ten miles on the Missouri River, in the northern side of Dawson County. It is a mag- nificent tract of bad-lands, very deeply eroded and carved, and highly picturesque. Thenewstatepreservecontains96squaremiles,butthere is so little grazing ground for antelope and bison it is absolutely impera- tive that a narrow strip of level grass land should be added along the southern border. This proposed addition is being fiercely resisted^ by an organized movement of the sheep owners of Montana (the National Wool Growers' Association), who naturally want the public domain for thefreegrazingoftheirtariff-protectedsheep-herds. Itremainstobe seen whether the three sheep men south of the preserve,—the only men who really are affected,—will be able to thwart a movement that has for its object the development of a very good game preserve for the benefit of the ninety millions of the general American public. The range is necessary to contain representatives of the big game of the plains that has been so ruthlessly swept away, and particularly the vanishing prong- horned antelope, once very numerous in that region.
In order to relieve the sheep men of all trouble on account of that preserve, the area should be enlarged to the right dimensions and made a national preserve. A bill for that purpose (Senate 5,286) is now before the Senate, in Senator McLean's Committee, and help is needed to over- come the active hostility of the sheep men, who vow that it never shall he passed! Allpersonswhoreadthisareinvitedtotakethismatterupwith their Senators and Representatives, without a moment's delay.
Wyoming:
The Teton State Preserve.—One of the largest and most im- portant state game preserves thus far established by any of our states isthatwhichwascreatedbyWyoming,in1904. Itissituatedalongthe south of, and fully adjoining, the Yellowstone Park, and its area is 900 square miles (576,000 acres). Its special purpose is to supplement for the elk herds and other big game the protection from killing that previously had been found in the Yellowstone Park alone. The State Preserve is an admirable half-way house for the migrating herds when they leave the National Park to seek their regular winter ranges in and around the Jackson Valley.