FISH-CULTURAL POSSIBILITIES OF THE

NATIONAL PRESERVES

By D. C. BOOTH

Among the later innovations in government administration has been the withdrawal from entry and setting aside of vast tracts of land in various parts of the country for forest reserves, for the preservation of objects of historic and scientific interest, for the protection of fishes, song and game birds, and big game, and for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Although new in the United States, this has been a well settled policy in many foreign countries for a comparatively long period. It had its inception in a desire to prevent ruthless waste, to develop the resources, and to preserve to the people an empire of immense possibilities which might otherwise fall into the hands of private ownership for spoliation, aggrandizement, and personal gain.

These reserves, small at first, have been augmented from time to time by presidential proclamation until now they comprise the stupendous total of over two hundred million acres, an area several times larger than all the New England States and nearly equalling the combined extent of all the states bordering on the Atlantic coast. These reservations and their ultimate uses are not of state or local interest solely, but are of national concern; and their administration, development and protection should remain under federal control. At the present time, several bureaus in the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, Interior, and War are working in harmony for the development, improvement, and protection of these reservations and conserving their phenomenal resources for the whole people. There are in all two hundred and thirty-six reserves, located in twenty-four states and territories, of which twelve are national parks, twenty-three for the preservation of objects.

of historic and scientific interest, fifty-one for the protection of birds, and one hundred and fifty for forestry.

Within this "ast empire, the principal rivers of the United States have their sources in a marvelous network of ideal trout streams. They are considered ideal from their very location in the mountains or higher elevations of the surrounding country, beyond the evil effects of an over-civilization, where they are free from pollution and their rapid fall and environment make them the natural home of the game trout. These reservations, containing some of the grandest mountain, forest and river scenery and much of the best big game hunting and fishing, are being each year made more accessible by substantial improvements in the way of macadamized roads, telegraph and telephone equipment, and modern hotels, thus eliminating many of the rougher phases of camp life.

During the past year over five hundred thousand people, representing every country in the world, visited these reserves for health, pleasure and recreation. Under such conditions these places are destined to become the great playgrounds of the American people. With some of them, especially Yellowstone National Park, the writer has been closely identified during the past decade, having personally conducted the first fish-cultural operations there and been in active charge ever since. Previous to the efforts of the Bureau of Fisheries a large portion of Yellowstone National Park was destitute of fish life, while now it offers probably the best game trout fishing in the country and is frequently mentioned by enthusiastic writers as the angler's paradise. Here is located the greatest game trout station in the country, where millions of eggs are each year collected, eyed, and shipped to supply various federal and state hatcheries less favorably situated and to applicants in many states. Over eight million eggs have been collected during a single season.

Although Yellowstone National Park was set aside as a government reservation in the early seventies, practically all

the improvements have been made during the past ten years. Here the traveler, upon alighting from the train of solid Pullmans at the boundary line, is met by tally-ho coaches of the most modern type, in which he tours the park for days over a perfectly macadamized road, sprinkled daily, with hotels at convenient distances on the way whose architectural beauty harmonizes with their surroundings and whose management would do credit to a large city. While a guest at one of these hotels with the conveniences of modern life, the traveler can hardly realize that he is in the very heart of the Rocky Mountains until he is forcibly reminded through the sudden appearance of several kinds of big game within a few feet of the hotel porches. Yellowstone National Park is thoroughly policed by four troops of United States cavalry besides civilian scouts, regular employees of the Interior Department, and it is needless to say that the fishes, birds, big game, and scenic beauties. are well protected. While seemingly alone in its wonderful geyser phenomena, as a game preserve Yellowstone National Park may be considered as fairly typical and affords a striking example of the wonderful possibilities of the other national reservations.

Wild game and fishes have always been and are today considered the property of the state in which found, but the inadequate protection afforded them is often a very discouraging feature to the enthusiastic fish culturist and is not comparable to the protection under federal control. At the present time these reserves offer far better hunting and fishing than the surrounding territory and they are a substantial benefit to every state near which they are located because they furnish a nursery for game and fish for the continuous replenishment of other sections.