Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. vi ar ae ae =. ——. United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Biological Survey ee aoe oe ee oe Oe Wildlife Research and Management Leeflet PS-108 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF AMERICAN aLpLire L/ By Ba) P. Sheldon, Chief, Division of Public Relations Contents Page : Page Original wealth in wildlife. . 1) + Early traffic in wildlife and Abundance unimpaired by In- : Tts procuctss «.. i + =< = = = ee etnies © 6 te 6 UU en eee, era closing .... 6 Exploitation by white settlers 3 : Wildlife management the remedy . 7 Influence of wildlife on colio- eA dend=use problem . «<<. & = ap 2 nization and settlement .. 4 3 Original Wealth in Wildlife Previous to the coming of the white settler sessed an abundance and variety of wildlife not surpa aece by: any ot he continent. There were reasons for this: Wildlife, like vegetation, is modified as its habitat changes and it varies in form and abundance accord- ing to climate, soil fertility, and altitude. North America, with its crest in the icy arctic and its base in the warm subtropical region of the Gul of Mexico; with its Rocky Mountains in the West and its Alleghenic t Hast; with its arid deserts, fertile plains, and well-waterec valleys lying between, has within its boundaries almost every possible variation t ature, precipitation, soil fertility, and vegetative cover. Alt from ridges that are thousands of feet above sea level to depths of the Death Valiey that are actually below sea level. Between the intense sudzero temperatures of the arctic wastes and the moist, tropical climate of t Isthmus of Panama are recorded infinite gradations of climate an This diversity results in amazirg differences in the tynes of bo fauna and flora, The tiny lichen clinging to a glacier-scored rock pro- truding above the arctic ice can requires half a century for a few inches of i/ Author's note: Prepared especially for use in schools, this will be followed by other cho pters dealing with other phases of wildlife cons vation and restoration. saceell, ibs growth, while along the Gulf thé rank jungle springs up almost as rapidly as the axe and the machete can cut it Gown. “The brow bear of Alaska--the largest meat-eating land animal, and the least: shrew, weighing an ounce or less, are alike able to find precisely the conditions each requires in order to live. So does the California condor, the largest living bird, with a wing spread of almost 10 feet, and so also does the wren, scarcely as large as one's thumb, The narwhal, the sea lion, the polar bear, and the manatee, together with thousands upon thousands of other Species, Haye tenon mee on the shores of a continent where Nature seems to have exerted her limit- less capacity for providing accommodation for the greatest possible number and variety of creatures. The white pioneers, explorers, and trappers saw such an abundance of game and other wildlife when they came to North America that they could not adequately describe it. They spoke of flights of pigeons so tremendous that they "darkened the sun for hours on end," but the phrase has little meaning today, because we ourselves have never seen such spectacles and can scarcely imagine what they were like. Their tales of bison herds that covered the prairie for mile after mile also fail to give us a picture of the sights that.met the wondering gaze of those ae travelers. When those men noted a flight of wild oe they actually saw millions: of ‘individ- ual ducks and geese; when we of today observe a fli cht of wild fowl, We. are fortunate indeed if it numbers a aa thousands.’ “ | ayia me Abundance Unimpaired by Indians Enormous numbers of birds and other forms of wildlife were present despite the fact that the aborigines who inhabited the continent lived principaliy upon the fish and game. One might think it strange that wild- life should have persisted in such overwhelming abundance under constant utilization for human needs, whereas it declined before another race of men who lived principally upon agricultural products--upon grain, vege- tables, milk, and the meat of domestic animals. oe we examine the facts underlying this. apparent inconsistency we shall find the answer to the conundrum in the different ways the two races used sive land--the prinmor- dial domain of the native fauna. } The American Indians were gardeners but not farmers, In their sma a1 primitive plots they cultivated beans, corn, and tobacco, but in er ited quantities that had their families been compelled to depend upon thes products alone, they would have starved. For food and ‘clothing they depended for the most part upon wildlife and uncultivated native plants. Then, too, the Indian ponulation was sparse and shifting, scattered over the vast area of the New World, Their crude agricultural enterprises <7] made little or no impression on the primeval cnvironment so favorable to the procuction of wildlife. With this productivity unchecked, the combined effects of all the hunting, trapping,. and fishing’ done by all the tribes resulted in no material decrease of the constantly replenished supply. ise some catastrophe had wiped out the Indian population, there would have re- mained in a year or two only a few scarcely discernible signs to indicate the hundreds of years of its occupancy, other than a féw shell mounds here a epi and there, the earthen burial mounds, the crude paintings in caves, and per- haps the emcke stains of cooking fires in a sheltered angle of a cliff. ‘The Indian's trails and his gardens would alike have been overgrown and his rude huts and frail tepees nh eae ated with the turrs of the seasons as are the leaves and grasses of the ssing year; The‘wild egceme an2 fur species, along with the forests, ee iton, rivers, lakes, aquatic life, and insect life, would socn have appeared unm marked and undamaged by the red man's long occupation of the land. Exploitation by White Settlers But after only three hundred years of occupancy, the white man in this country, were he to be suddenly cxtcrminated, would leave behind him enduring f=) Scars and open. wounds that might néver heal. fter thousands of years our concrete highways and our cities of stone and steel would be reduceG and dis- solved to. some- extent, but the geclogist would still be- able to fina arid wastes, dust bowls, the scarred, eroded, treeless mountain sides, the choked and muddy streams, and the’ ruined marshland--melancholy monuments of the white man's civilization, The botanist would find velueless species of plant life growing where richly productive vezetation had once flourished, and the biol- ogist would observe rats, cats, starlings, English sparrows, carp, and other such alien creatures usurping a land that was never meant for them. The entomologist would find other devastating evidences of our occupation and husbandry equally eloquent of our careless, wasteful, destructive habits. Among the Indians it was the common practice to move to fresh hunting frounds whenever the old showed signs of becoming exhausted. Left unmolested, the former site was scon replenished, for its productivity and fertility had not been impaired. The fae gardening operations left @ scar on the wilderness scarcely more permane oe then that made by his canoe as he paddled along a lonely lake. That he must never kill for sport was one oo the commandments given ts the Indian by the God who created the universe, according to the Iroquois legend. He was given dominion over the beasts of arte field and the fowls of the air as in our om theology, but it was e provisicnal custcdianship _— tolerated neither waste nor abuse. he Indian never shared the white man's conception of sport; to provide meat and fish for himself and his family was @ laborious task. The white settlers and pioneers soon acquired the same attitude, no doubt, for it became the general practice among them to depend upon their profesional hunters to bring the necessary supplies of game into the set- lements, very much as the citizens of a modern commmity depend upon th butchers and the meat markets for that tyne of food. With the occupation of the land by the-white settlers, however, wildlife began to diminish. The decrease was imperceptible at first, but it was definite nevertheless, | for once the scttlers had brought the primitive land under tillage or ex- | ploited it by industry, it long remained in that status As they moved ) westward the new settlers subjugated more and more of the wild.land, and the wildlife that remained in rear of the advancing line of frontiersnen and settlers was forced to adjust itself to a new environment-~one that for st species was not nearly so favorable as it originally was. ee. Me fertile ground that for ages hac grown crops of wild same and fur animals was now required to grow corn, wheat, tobacco, beans, and cotton, and to support Gomestic flocks and herds, This condition, disastrous for Many species, actually benefited others. The big-game species suffered first and mosts Weile the bison, ellk, deer, and bears were extirpated om fomced to retire to areas remote from cultivation, some of the smaller ereatures, imneluding the quail, the rabbit, the raccoon, ana the apossum, found the. additional food ‘supply grown by the farmer an encouragement to increase their numbers for a time and to extend their ranges. fan ou mee on | aac on Colonization and Se Settlement The abundance of game and fur animals and of fishes aided the pio- leers and settlers in establishing thenselves in the new land; without it, indeed, rapid colonization would have been impossible. Supplies from Europe to be, brought over a long and hazardous ocean route, a communication line far too tenuous and inadequate to support even the smallest outpost of Civilization against the rigors of the wilderness. For a long time after the land had been cleared and crops were being harvested, the settlers still found themselves dependent on the wild game and fur animals for a very con- siderable proportion of the essentials of life. 5 2§ ing west of the Mississippi came from the beaver trappers, or "a St mnen"—— the "long hunters"--so-called not because of their lean and rangy appearance, but from their custom of disappearing into the wilderness for months at a time. Resourceful, solitary men, they prided themselves on their ability to do anything that the Indian eovld do, ana Go it better. These adventurers were perfectly fitted for the hazardous task of exploring the unknown wesvern wilderness, and the beaver was the lodestone that drew them across the Plains to the Rockies and across the Rockies to Mexico and to the Pacific Northwest. But for these men the entire region of Northwestern United States would now in, all probability, be held by Great Britain, for they resisted the invasion of the coveted territory by Canadian fur: traders and trappers, and thus first established the claim of the United States to the great Oregon territory. The white man's first. knowledge of the nature of the great region Wy— Teaco im Waele ene Wus emmoctWets Ear : fs Except for the fur animals and the bison, there was for many years MO CGiroch eCxplortation of wi lalate, t was at this time, however, that some of the great American fortunes were founded upon the fur trade, nota- bly that of the Astor family. Their remote trading posts in a few years Parmnered the wealth of fur and Very yto posterity Searcely nore than ceau— tered remnants of what had been a tremendoug resource. The pelts of fur animals and the hides of bison were. commodities that would endure trans— portation from the wilderness to the settlements, but the flesh of game binges Vend mammals could not be Sent back over the one trail, tiling for the market did mol become a serious factor im whe, ges duction of game until stimulated by the growth of cities and towns nearer to the gare fields and the development of railways. Traffic in game as food flourished after the Civil War and probably reached its peak in the 80's. During that time uncounted millions of passenger pigeons, prairie ee chickens, grouse, ducks, geese, upland plover, snipe, woodcock, quail, and other food species were annually sent to market bir gunners who, except for a few months in midsummer, shot and snared game the whole year round. It was during this time that the passenger pigeon was exterminated and certain other game specics were so badly reduced that they have never since recovered. Strange to say, market shooting seems to have enriched no one en gaged in it. Today a pair of canvasback Gucks taken from the Susquehanna Flats and illicitly offered for sale will bring the poacher from $3 to $5 if he can concluce the transaction without being caught by Federal or State ee S law-enforcement: officers, in which case the offender may have to pay a $500 *) oi Ls fine and spend 6 months in jail, Much of the game earlier taken for the then legitimate market spoiled on its way, and what was sound and saleable brought’ prices so low that the receipts often were not sufficient to pay the gunner’s expenses, Ducks, geese, and other game birds sold for a few cents a pair, and the business was so badly orgenized and conpetition s sharp that the markets were nearly elweys glutted. The written accounts of Bogardus and other market shooters afford sone indication of the extent of the slaughter. They also refer to the uncertainty of profit and describe nerket shooting generally as a hard, leborious, and often hazardous enter- = > , 9 prise, Yet it was continzed until sportsmen and conservationists at the beginning of the present century beenane alarmed at the destruction and scught legislation to prohibit treffic in game. a = 4 ral The Aaerican bison, or buffalo, as the animal is more generally called, achieved military significance in the history of the country. It has been estimated that there were not fewer than 75,000,000 of these animals making up the vast herds that roamed the continent at the time the white man was establishing the first colonies. Buffalo were not, as many now suppose, a purely western species. At that time their range extendcod clear to the At- lantic seaboard, as did that of the elk, The hide hunters brought the buf- falo to the very verge of extinction, and though it scems strange to us today, they had the full consent and approval of the United States Govern- ment to encourage them in the slaughter. The buffalo was the Plains Indians’ base of supply, and the existence of vast herds on the hunting grounds made the subjugation of the hostile tribes difficult if not impossible of accomplishment by the armed ferees cf the Unitec States. It was clear to the strategists in Washineton that there could be no peace with the Indian and no complete conquest of the rich western lands until the buffalo had been destroyed, for these roving herds were supplying the Indian with nearly everything he needed in the way of food, shelter, and equipment. The Government accomplished its purposes by aiding the buffalo hunt- ers With free ammunition end supplies and by giving them nilitary protec- tion whenever possible, When the Sharps "buffalo gun" and the skinning knife had finished their work the Indians had been driven into the reser- vations, and the buffalo--the few hundreds of them remaining-——were gathered into preserves, most of which are now maintained by the same Government that a few years previously had so grimly sought annihilation of the aninals. There they will remain unless in the unpredictable vicissitudes of tine, areas of their hereditary range are agein restored to them and to tho elk, deer, and antelope. The swift and merciless exploitation of the buffalo only hastened an inevitable. process, however, for in tine the Indians must have retired before the constantly augmented numbers of settlers and the herds of cones- tic cattle would then have. usurped.the buffalo pastures... Tne his Osta On the decline of this animal: furnishes one of the most ci Grae ee exanples the relationship: éxisting.betwecn wildlife conservation and land wtili>. zation. Years of actual experience prove that these herds on Fedorel pre- serves can ts increased indefinitely; that the buffalo might even. be restored to original abundance locally, nrovided land were available. € same is »robably true of any form ef wildlife... The principle | ea Tele ae ial wildlife-restoration nragram now being conducted oL lL Survey. ‘This program sceks the establishment of a systen 3 ing ebout -7,500,000 acres of land and water to furnish habitat for inc easing the population of otnde and animals and providing a surplus not now existent but one that will offset the losses from regulated shooting and other causes. Since 19264 the ae on the Biclogical Survey's Bison Range in Mortana--bat one of five similar ranges administered by the Bureau--has produced neerly 1,400 animals. in excess of the carrying capacity of the range. That surphis and those from the other preserves, had they been released and allowed to reproduce under protection, would now have | repopulated a considerable area, These increases, however, have contributed little or nothing to any broad restoration program, because the continued utilization of range lana fo purposes leaves now no rocm at all for the hereditary monarch of 1 Exploitation Era Closing Me -era vor wale ite oxploitati ion is.now drawing to a close. I%s last stages are marked by the incrcasing determination manifested by State and Federal agencies, by sportsmen and conservationists, and by the general public to apply methcds and SUE AG STORIE ve policies of a positive navumesror preventing further unnecessary losses wildlife and for restoring the velu— able species to the maximum abundance ee with the conditions of a modern civilization, For many native American species the. change of attitude has come too late to save them from extinction, . The vanished species in- clude the great auk, the Pallas eee the Labrador duck, the passen- Ber pigeon, the-heath hen, the Eskimo curlew; end the Cee ina Sesaree Of the mammals, the ginnt mink has gone and the grizziy bear has been nearly vexberminated im the United states; pRopens. Other ispecies outing trumpeter swan, canvasback duck, redhead, upland plover, whooping crane, golden plover, and ivory—billed woodpecker, to list. a few of those heed ened—--may yet be added to that much lamented category of treasures forever lost to us. Even though some of these birds and mammals still number thousands and are common erioush to suggest the idea of abundance, it is possible that these long years of abuse heve already inflicted fatal damage through the reduction cof breeding stock to a point where the annual increase by reproduction is less than the numbers annually destroyed by natural enemies and other causes. These inimical agencies incluce not only the predatory 1 Oo H creatures but climatic conditions, starvation,’ drought, and disease, These influences can seldom be defeated or mullified effectively by human interfer- ence, so that a species still apparently numerous may actually be doomed to extermination and be already beyond the hope of rescue by aid of human devices. “It is estimated that there are about 110,000 elk now remaining on the continent, 3,500,000 deer of all kinds, 70,900 bears, 50,000 wild t keys, and possibly 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 wild dacks of all species. Com- parison of these estimates with accounts of the wildlife resources present at the time of the coming of the white man affords a dismal realization of the extent of the damage done to what once was one of the richest resources of North America. But the situation is not so discouraging as these comparisons would seem to indicate on first analysis. The fact that after 300 years of contin- uous exploitation, neglect, and abuse there stili remain considerable popula- tions of nearly all common species demonstrates the amazing tenacity of the resource and suggests its profound recuperative power under more favorable conditions. W. L. McAtee, of the Biological Survey, gives a vivid descrip- tion of the ability of mcst species to multiply when freed from destructive influences. He states, "The most important factor bearing upon wildlife management is the anazing reproductive capacity of living things. ... to aid efforts to increase wildlife there is available a reproductive force almost explosive in its intensity." Many attempts have been made to utilize this force in order that favored species--especially those classed as gamé--might increase. The Massachusetts colonies adopted ordinances to restrict the kill of certain species. Even the Indians maintained "bear preserves" whercon the bear, particularly valuable to them because of its: fat, was never molested. Following settlenent by the whites this type of effort to increase game by restricting the kill appears with increasing frequency, until at the open- ‘ing of the present century nearly if not all the States and the Canadian Provinces had adopted elaborate statutory codes designed to protect wild- life and enable it to multiply. The system, however, is only partially effective, Failure to realize to the full the intended benefits has been due to lax enforcement of iaws, which has been occasioned in turn by neg- ligible appropriations of money, by political interference, and by a general apathy on the part of the public, all of which are attributable to lack of appreciation of the seriousness of the problem confronting State and Nation. But a deterrent factor even more potent was the seeming inability of wildlife administrators to realize that the reduction of the annual toll of game taken by gunners was only one part of a successful restoration y oS v Pp plan. The missing element was that of planning for land utilization and management in such way as to preserve to the greatest degree possible the environmental conditions without which the wild creatures could not even though otherwise freed from human persecution. It is easy for us n to realize, for exanple, that the drainnge and reclamation of about 100,000,000 acres of marshland in the United States alone operated as effectively to pre- a. oe vent the increase of waterfowl as did the guns of the market shooters, Sim- ilar conditions applied with equal force to other species. Cultivation, deforestation, loweri ne of water levels by drainage, and the pollution of many of the remaining natural reservoirs and streams placed woland game and other forms of wildlife under a tremendous handicap. Agriculture claimed not the fertile lands cna invaded the submarginal areas as well--and the domain of the wild living things that required wilderness environment shrank away from the invader. A Land-Use Problem H, W. Nelson, a former Chief of the Biological Survey, was one of the first to point to the truth, when in 1915 he began to urge the immediate acquisition of marsh and water areas to be set aside as permanent sanctuaries for waterfowl and other ae ef wildlife. It was not until 1926.) mowemens that there was finally vessed the Migratory Bird. Conservation Act, which authorized approvriat Ae of funds amounting to about $8,000, 000 to be ex- pended over a go ae period for the purpose advanced by Dr... Nelson. Omi about $1,200,000 ha S actually been “pRrODT a ee thus far; bub Dy the pees ~ ) Sage. of the, act, cas gave its endorsgenent, to a national polvey on wmale. life restoration and declared the preservation of habitat to be a funda- mental part of the Government's restoration olan: ae act has since been supplemented by others and by the allocation of emergency funds designed to carry out these purvoses. Not only Congress but other legislative and administrative bodies anc the people generally at last begen t6 appreciate the value of preserv= ing and restoring wildlife and to understand its intimate, relationship to land utilization. The long evcle of drought beginning in 1915 and contin- fy uing with an intensity almost unbroken for two decades was responsible for @ new and HOuE RE Re imterest by the public in the condi; 20m of omszanie mee tional resources of all kinds, Words and phrases Geseriptive of somlveros sion, lowered water tables, and the destruction of vegetative cover had been meaningless terms and vague to the mind of 3 rage citizen. suddenly they became clothed with disturbing significances when the somber, baleful shadows of the dust storms drifted across the country, telling or the destruction. of millions of tons. of fertile soil, or when floods roarad unchecked along the inland waterways like huge ruptured arteries spilling out the very life blocd of the Nation. The conservationist now finds an interested and anxious audience where hitherto his warnings had been ignored or heard with tolerance and ncolitely concealed contempt. The great hand of Nature was writing a message of foreboding; the symbols were whirling clouds of choking dust, thunderous torrents, dying cattle, and destitute humanity. The me ee means that the economic and social secur- ity of the Nation is utterly dependent upon the national ability to con- serve and administer wisely the organic resources and products of the soil. Wildlife is one of these.