Forest and Forage Protection
The Forest Service is endeavoring to carry on a reforestation program throughout much of the cut-over area in the Lake States and the Pacific Northwest. One of the chief problems to successful reforestation is the control of rodents, particularly the snowshoe hare. In the Olympic Forest in Washington, the snowshoe hare has destroyed as much as 40 percent and damaged 70 percent of the Douglas fir seedlings. In Michigan and Wisconsin, it was necessary to carry on extensive rodent-control operations to permit the seedlings to survive. Much of this work would never have been possible but for E.C.W. help.
In the open area, jack rabbits have become a serious pest. The Biological Survey, in 1934, received a petition bearing the signatures of more than 8,000 individuals of eastern Colorado, requesting Government aid in killing jack rabbits, which were ravaging the meager stocks of forage left after drought and wind had taken their toll.
The Forest Service recognized that rodent control would be essential if the Plains Shelterbelt program of planting trees from the Canadian border to Texas was to be effective, and in 1935 approximately one-tenth of its entire appropriation for the program was expended for rodent control under the supervision of the Biological Survey. Crews patrolled the planted areas constantly to prevent the gnawing of the seedlings by jack rabbits and pocket gophers.