- Provision should be made for one or more state game preserves.
- Spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl should be prohibited.
- A larger and more effective warden service should be provided.
- Doves should be removed from the game list.
- The sage grouse should be given a ten-year close season, for recuperation.
- All non-game birds should have perpetual protection.
- The cranes, now verging on extinction, and the pigeons and doves should at once be taken out of the list of game birds, and forever protected.
- All the shore birds need five years of close protection.
- A State Game Warden whose term of office is not less than four years should be provided for.
- A corps of salaried game protectors should be chosen for active and aggressive game protection.
- Nevada's bag limits are among the best of any state, the only serious flaw being "10 sage grouse" per day: which should be 0!
Nevada still has a few antelope; and we beg her to protect them all from being hunted or killed! It is my belief that if the antelope is really saved anywhere in the United States outside of national parks and preserves, it will be in the wild and remote regions of Nevada, where it is to be hoped that lumpy-jaw has not yet taken hold of the herds.
Speaking generally, the New Hampshire laws regulating the killing and shipment of game are defective for the reason that on birds, and in fact all game save deer, there appear to be no "bag" limits on the quantity that may be killed in a day or a season. The following bag limits are greatly needed, forthwith:
- Gray Squirrel, none per day, or per year; duck (except wood-duck), ten per day, or thirty per season; ruffed grouse, four per day, twelve per season; hare and rabbit, four per day, or twelve per season.
- Five-year close seasons should immediately be enacted for the following species: quail, woodcock, jacksnipe and all species of shore or "beach" birds.
- The sale of all native wild game should be prohibited; and game-breeding in preserves, and the sale of such game under state supervision, should be provided for.
- The use of automatic and pump guns in hunting should be barred,—through state pride, if for no other reason.
New Jersey enjoys the distinction of being the second state to break the strangle-hold of the gun-makers of Hartford and Ilion, and cast out the odious automatic and pump guns. It was a pitched battle,—that of 1912, inaugurated by Ernest Napier, President of the State Game and Fish Commission and his fellow commissioners. The longer the contest continued, the more did the press and the people of New Jersey awaken to the seriousness of the situation. Finally, the gun-suppression bill passed the two houses of the legislature with a total of only fourteen votes against it, and after a full hearing had been granted the attorneys of the gunmakers, was promptly signed by Governor Woodrow Wilson. Governor Wilson could not be convinced that the act was "unconstitutional," or "confiscatory" or "class legislation."
This contest aroused the whole state to the imperative necessity of providing more thorough protection for the remnant of New Jersey game, and it was chiefly responsible for the enactment of four other excellent new protective laws.
New Jersey always has been sincere in her desire to protect her wild life, and always has gone as far as the killers of game would permit her to go! But the People have made one great mistake,—common to nearly every state,—of permitting the game-killers to dictate the game laws! Always and everywhere, this is a grievous mistake, and fatal to the game. For example: In 1866 New Jersey enacted a five-year close-season law on the "prairie fowl" (pinnated grouse); but it was too late to save it. Now that species is as dead to New Jersey as is the mastodon. The moral is: Will the People apply this lesson to the ruffed grouse, quail and the shore birds generally before they, too, are too far gone to be brought back? If it is done, it must be done against the will of the gunners; for they prefer to shoot,—and shoot they will if they can dictate the laws, until the last game bird is dead.
In 1912, New Jersey is spending $30,000 in trying to restock her birdless covers with foreign game birds and quail. In brief, here are the imperative duties of New Jersey:
- Provide eight-year close seasons for quail, ruffed grouse, woodcock, snipe, all shore birds and the wood-duck.
- Prohibit the sale of all native wild game; but promote the sale of preserve-bred game.
- Prevent the repeal of the automatic gun law, which surely will be attempted, each year.
- Prohibit all bird-shooting after January 10, each year, until fall.
- Prohibit the killing of squirrels as "game."