Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and PreservationHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game-laws -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
Colorado has work to do in the preservation of her remnant of bird life.
In several respects she is behind the times. The present is no time to
hesitate, or to ask the gunners what _they_ wish to have done about new
laws for the saving of the remnant of game. The dictates of common sense
are plain, and inexorable. Let the lawmakers do their whole duty by the
remnant of wild life, whether the game killers like it or not.
_The Curse of Domestic Sheep Upon Game and Cattle_.--Much has been said
in print and out of print regarding the extent to which domestic sheep
have destroyed the cattle ranges and incidentally many game ranges of
the West; but the half hath not been told. The American people as a
whole do not realize that the domestic sheep has driven the domestic
steer from the free grass of the wild West, with the same speed and
thoroughness with which the buffalo-hunters of the 70's and 80's swept
away the bison. I have seen hundreds of thousands of acres of what once
were beautiful and fertile cattle-grazing lands in Montana, that has
been left by grazing sheep herds looking precisely as if the ground had
been shaven with razors and then sandpapered. The sheep have driven out
the cattle, and the price of beef has gone up accordingly. Neither
cattle, horses nor wild game can find food on ground that has been
grazed over by sheep.
The following is the testimony of a reliable eye witness, Mr. Dillon
Wallace, and the full text appears in his book, "_Saddle and Camp in the
Rockies_," (page 169):--
Domestic sheep and sheep herders are the greatest enemies of the
antelope, as well as of other game animals and birds in the regions
where herders take their flocks. The ranges over which domestic
sheep pasture are denuded of forage and stripped of all growth, and
antelope will not remain upon a range where sheep have been.
Thus the sheep, sweeping clean all before them and leaving the
ranges over which they pass unproductive, for several succeeding
seasons, of pasturage for either wild or domestic animals, together
with the destructive shepherds, are the worst enemies at present of
Utah's wild game, particularly of antelope, sage hens, and grouse.
In Iron county, which has already become an extensive sheep region,
settlers tell us that before the advent of sheep, grass grew so
luxuriously that a yearling calf lying in it could not be seen. Not
only has the grass here been eaten, but the roots tramped out and
killed by the hoofs of thousands upon thousands of sheep, and now
wide areas, where not long since grass was so plentiful, are as bare
and desolate as sand-piles.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXIX
NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES
(Continued)
CONNECTICUT:
The sale of all native wild game, regardless of its source, should
be prohibited at all times. Enact at once a five-year close season
law on the remnant of ruffed grouse, quail, woodcock, snipe, and all
shore birds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account