Federal, State, and Local Cooperation
When the Emergency Conservation Work Program came into being, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Division of Grazing, and the Bureau of Biological Survey took the opportunity to treat a vast acreage that would have been treated years ago had funds permitted. During the three fiscal years 1934 to 1936 a total of almost 20,000,000 acres had been covered by E.C.W. for the control of these various rodent pests. On the statute books of several Western States rodent-control laws provide that landowners may establish rodent-control districts wherein all lands are treated simultaneously by paid crews working under the supervision of the Biological Survey. Never before the E.C.W. program were there adequate Federal funds to make these laws effective by taking proper care of infested public lands adjacent to private holdings.
The most concrete proof of the necessity of rodent control is found in the amount of money expended by private individuals throughout the West for this purpose. The Federal Government, while owning as much as 60 percent of the land in many of the Western States, contributes only about 25 percent of the total cost of rodent-control operations. During the fiscal year 1936, States, counties, and private individuals expended $665,785 for the purpose, while the Biological Survey was able to expend only $226,623 from regular appropriations. The E.C.W. program afforded the first opportunity of somewhere near meeting the Federal Government's obligations to the citizens of the West in the matter of adequately controlling the rodent pests that breed and range on public lands and from these strongholds infest and reinfest adjacent private holdings.