Report of the Director of the National Park Service to the Secretary of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended ...

Serious efforts were made to restock areas with some of the original game animals. The States extended their bird and game reservations, following the way pointed out by the blazed trail of national park conservation policies. Acts passed by the legislatures of the various States and the National Congress cooperated in reducing the time for open seasons and otherwise imposed restrictions on hunting.

The success which attends game propagation in the national parks is to a large extent dependent on the cooperation of adjoining States in providing refuges in which the animals may remain unmolested for well defined periods when they drift outside the park boundaries. Much in this direction still remains to be done, for some of the States have been slow to appreciate the wisdom of this course. For the past few years, however, progress in this direction has been gratifying, particularly in connection with the Yellowstone National Park. This past season, through the cooperation of the Lewis County Game Commission, and the supervisor of the Rainier National Forest, two and one-half townships along the south boundary of Mount Rainier National Park were set aside as a game preserve, which will materially assist in increasing the number of deer in that park.

The Yellowstone affords a good example of how national parks. with their increase of wild life stimulated by adequate protection, may become sources of supply for the game needs of the various parts of the country. From this one park alone numerous sections have been supplied with elk as well as many zoological parks of municipalities. In nearly all cases the transplanting has proved entirely successful. Congress gave its official sanction to this policy in legislation which it passed last winter by authorizing the disposition of surplus buffaloes in the Yellowstone herd which will enable the service to deal more effectively with the surplus bulls. Here is found the largest herd of buffalo in the United States, as well as the greatest number of elk. In passing I should also observe that our policy of complete sanctuary for the wild life is responsible for saving the remnant of what is perhaps our most noble animal, the grizzly bear. It seems to be making its last stand in the Yellowstone Park.

The prime reason for the creation of Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska was the protection of its wild life, particularly the caribou and mountain sheep. This park is still a wilderness, without roads and with practically no trails, its area comprising 2,645 square miles, next to the Yellowstone the largest park in the system. Patrolling this area and protecting the wild life, therefore, presents greater problems in the suppression of unlawful game killing than perhaps any other park. The small appropriation of $8,000 annually only permits of the employment of a superintendent and one ranger, whose accomplishments in the line of protection are necessarily small in comparison with the duties that the administration of that area throws upon us. Here especially are large appropriations needed for proper patrolling forces. The law creating the Mount McKinley National Park is peculiar in that it provides certain exceptions to the policy of absolute conservation followed in other parks, section 6 of that act reading as follows:

SEC. 6. That the said park shall be and is hereby established as a game refuge, and no person shall kill any game in said park except under an order from the Secretary of the Interior for the protection of persons or to protect or prevent the extermination of other animals or birds: Provided, That pro