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United States ee ese of Agriculture
Bureau of Biological Survey

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FORESTRY AND GAME MANAGEMENT*
By Herman H. Chapman, Yale School of Forestry

Geme management within forest areas looks to the production of
the largess possible annual crops of game consistent with the preser~
vation and management of the forest itself. It does not look upon
game as the sole or even the vrimary product of the forest, but as one
of several uses, including timber crops, watershed and soil protection,
and on extensive areas in the West, the grazing of domestic stock.

Game crops must find their proper place in this scheme, and it is the ,
business of the forester to see that this resource, as well as others,
is brought to its fullest utility.

Game management is just emerging from a prolonged period of
domination by svortsmen interested only -in the bag limits and hunt-—
ing seasons on tne one hand, and by politicians who battened on the
enforcement of these primitive laws on the other; and now bids fair
ultimately to take its vlace with forestry as a source of conservation
and intelligently planned sustained yield, based on an understending
of the biological factors involved in maintaining such a balance, and |
@ recognition by the public that only by giving entire control to men i
trained in these services cen edequate results ever be achieved.

, While the technical direction and control of game production in |
States and Nation must rest with game specialists, the immediate
_problem, where definite areas of forest are conicemmed, cto isecune |
full coordination in the specific management of these forests, so that |
neither the production of timber crops, nor the protection of water-

sheds, nor the grazing of livestock, nor the preservation of elk or

ser becomes on exclusive aim, in the pursuit of which ell other values

and interests are ignored.

The general position of the forester, in all civilized countries—- )
& position accorded by the public as the best solution of their prob-
lem of adjustment of conflicting interests—--gives him practically full
control of all the different uses of a forest area. This solution
is based on the belief that the forest crop is in fact the dominent use,
giving the highest value per acre to society, end that other uses must
therefore be subordinated and correlated to this use.

This solution, however, has not yet been accepted by the Ameri-
can public at large, end the nearest approach to it is in the proposal
by the Department of Agriculture that the regulation of geme on the
national forests be recognized as a Federol responsibility and carried
out by the Forest Service.

*Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Forestry 34 (2): 104-106,
Heb. LOSE.

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This theory is also based on a fundamentally important princi-
ple, namely, that the administration of any large body of land must be
centered in one authority, on an area basis, and not divided between
severel different authorities on a functional basis. In the former
case, the specialists eppear as advisers and assistants, while in the
latter they have the power to carry out anv measure affecting their
interest regardless of its effect on the whole administration or on
other end .ernaps more importent interests.

Cen foresters be trusted to administer game matters efficiently
on forest areas under their charge? This would probably be answered
in the negative by most of the game interests at present, in the belief,
first, that foresters know too little about game, and second, that tney
secrifice game values in an unintelligent manner, in order to secure
higher production of commercial trees.

at these game interests do not ssem to realize is that tne
entire profession of forestry is based on the principle of coordinated
use of all land resources, including agriculture, and not upon the ex-
clusive pursuit of a hobby such as parks, or game, or a single interest
like grazing or lumbering: that because of this fect foresters, after
admitting grazing to the netioneal forests were the first Federal agency
to control it in the putlic interest; that foresters were the-first

to detect and endeavor to control erosion resuiting from destruction
of vegetative cover on other than agricultural lands, and that follow
ing a natural path of development foresters were the first to establisn
modern scientific principles of game management, both abroad and in

tne United States.

It is netural and inevitable that as soon as a2 profession of
trained game and fish specialists arose, their contributions to this
science should swiftly outrenk the empirical knowledge of foresters,
whose special training had been in other fields. with the result that
many definite end practical suggestions were made, by which geme con-
ditions could be greatly improved by modifying forestry practice.

The significant point is thet foresters, instead of resisting these
ideas, heave made immeciate efforts to incorporate them in plans for
forest mansgament,.

The important fertures of sound game mansgement ere, increase
in the natural food supnly for the game, natural or vegetative protec-—
tion from climate and predators, opportunity to increase up to the
limit of the carrying capacit;. of tne renge, end finally, the preser—
vation of this netural balance between food, game, and predators. In
this tension the entrance of men and his activities es e predator is
the most important element, and the entire prob-em of predator control
must be worked out on the basis, not of complete protection from all
killing, but on the relative amount of kill which is to be secured for
sportsmen as against animal predators.

The most extreme and dangerous form of abnormal management occurs
when all forms of predatory activity, including hunting, are prohibited
successfully in the interest of the neture-loving public, who wish to
see the wild animals in mach the same manner but in far more elevating
surroundings and conditions than are maintained in zoos. Where this

natural but totally unscientific management is practiced, and the
healthy natural forces:of depletion are abolished, there first oc~ -
curs a rapid increase in the nerd, whether it be deer on the Kai-
bab Forest (and in half 2 mmdred other locelities), moose on Isle
Royale, or antelope on the Coconino National Forest. There follows
swiftly an almost total destruction of the food supply, or vegetative
base. Starvation then sets in, accompanied by disease and malformations,
dwarfing of stature, and general ruin of the species, The carrying
capacity is permanently lowered and ths public deprived of the sight

of even the normal inumber of animals for decades to come. As foresters
we speak not from theory but from experience, Had, it been possible

in any other way than by such horrible examples to overcome the ob-—
Stacles of single-minded opposition by neture lovers, State control

of game laws by politicians, and jealous guarding of universal rights

of citizens to kill to the bag limit, the practice of regulated

kills on such areas would have prevented these debacles without in-~
voking the terrific reprisal of outraged. nature, when her age-old
balences are rudely upset by well-meaning but ignorant idealists.

One thing hes, however, been demonstrated. Given proper pro-
tection, especially during the breeding season, and an adequate food
supply, even such large animals as deer, elk, moose, antelope, and
bear will increase at an astounding rate, and may thus be made to fur-
nish both spectacle and sport for our entire nation perpetually, if
rightly managed. The same is true in even greater proportion for small
ame.

The forester's responsitility lies not in. the general field of
State game laws or regulations, nor in technical research, but rather
in the management of forests directly under his control, whether this
be: National, State, or private. In this domain he can'evoid the
"deserts" caused by large even-aged stands of conifers, for instance,
by resorting, as he would for other sound reasons, to the breaking
up of age classes, and the creation of all-aged forests and stands.
Coniferous plantations while lecking in food, provide indispensable
protective cover and, when of small area and dispersed among hardwood
forests, greatly increase the game total of botn large and small species,
Forest margins and openings and many species of food bearing trees
and shrubs can be favored with no loss to commercial production of
timber, An adequate mumber of "coon" trees per square mile might
easily be spered in improvement cuttings, but no one need worry about
Squirrels! These end many other relationships are easily and reodily
worked out on any forest area over which the forester has CONE LONG
including the indispensable game sanctuaries of proper size to permit of
protection without creating the havoc of overproduction.

The other side of the picture is worth a glance. Game, both
for recreation (sight) and sport offers a direct satisfaction to the
individual of his need for relaxation, and as such possesses the enor-
mous emotional eppeal thet a two weeks! vacation offers as contrasted
with fifty weeks of grinding office toil. So strong is this senti-
ment that, were it not for the contest between the sight-seers and the
killers, on the one hand, and the fact that practically every game
enthusiast is a dogged individualist in his Opinwon, on the other, che
force of the geome interests in public affairs would be well nigh

eye

irrysistible; and the only hope of the forester would lie (as im fact « ;
4% does) in his advocacy of natural laws and metnods, wiich constantly
support his contentions by demonstrations of their soundness. But

even in older countries, such as Germany, foresters nave leaned far
towards the maximum production of game regardless of damage to the

forest, and have as a consequence been forced to resort to expense in
protecting reproduction from extermineticn by trowsing, that would

be impossible in America for decades to come. At the meeting of the
German Society of Foresters in the summer of 1945, a resolution was
unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed? to the effect that the

total populetion of game in the German forests must be considerably
reduced if the public éxbected these forests to continue to produce

a reasonably adequate drop of timber for the use of the nation,

The crux of the situation here will lie in‘the possible damage
by browsing, to the reproduction cf tress. Already meny examples
have occurred of pvlantatiéns decimated by winter browsing of deer.
With proper coordination of forest mansgement, including the provi-
sion for abundant supply of preferred foods (deer: do not eet ever-
_greens by choice) end the prevention of rainous over-population by
a regulated kill, it wiil.be pessible to raise; not the maximum of
wood alone, nor yet the greatest number of game animals, but the
maximum crops of both trees and game taken as a whole, on areas on
“which no-one interest is allowed to dominate and destroy the rights

-..and welfare of all others, but which are menaged for the greatest

food of all, in perpetuity.