Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation

by William T. Hornaday

In the Adirondacks of northern New York, there are a great many private game preserves. Dr. T.S. Palmer, in his pamphlet on "Private Game Preserves" (Department of Agriculture) places the number at 60, and their total area at 791,208 acres. Some of them have caused much irritation among some of the hunting, fishing and trapping residents of the Adirondack region. They seem to resent the idea of the exclusive ownership of lands that are good hunting-grounds. This view of property rights has caused much trouble and some bloodshed, two persons having been killed for presuming to assert exclusive rights in large tracts of wilderness property.

"In the upland preserve under private ownership." says Dr. Palmer, "may be found one of the most important factors in the maintenance of the future supply of game and game birds. Nearly all such preserves are maintained for the propagation of deer, quail, grouse, or pheasants. They vary widely in area, character, and purpose, and embrace some of the largest game refuges in the country. Some of the preserves in North Carolina cover from 15,000 to 30,000 acres; several in South Carolina exceed 60,000 acres in extent." The Megantic Club's northern preserve, on the boundary between Quebec and Maine, embraces nearly 200 square miles, or upward of 125,000 acres.

Comparatively few of the larger preserves are enclosed, and on such grounds, hunting becomes sport quite as genuine as it is in regions open to free hunting. In some instances part of the tract is fenced, while large unenclosed areas are protected by being posted. The character of their tenure varies also. Some are owned in fee simple; others, particularly the larger ones, are leased, or else comprise merely the shooting rights on the land. In both size and tenure, the upland preserves of the United States are comparable with the grouse moors and large deer forests of Scotland.

Of the game preserves in the South, I know one that is quite ideal. It is St. Vincent Island, near Apalachicola, Florida, in the northern edge of the Gulf of Mexico. It was purchased in 1909 by Dr. Ray V. Pierce, and his guests kill perhaps one hundred ducks each year out of the thousands that flock to the ten big ponds that occupy the eastern third of the island. Into those ponds much good duck food has been introduced,—Potamogeton pectinatus and perfoliatus. The area of the island is twenty square miles. Besides being a great winter resort for ducks, its sandy, pine-covered ridges and jungles of palms to and live oak afford fine haunts and feeding grounds for deer. Those jungles contain two species of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus louisiana and osceola), and Dr. Pierce has introduced the Indian sambar deer and Japanese sika deer (Cervus sika), both of which are doing well. We are watching the progress of those big sambar deer with very keen interest, and it is to be recorded that already that species has crossed with the Louisiana white-tailed deer.

MAP OF MARSH ISLAND AND ADJACENT WILD-FOWL PRESERVES

During the autumn of 1912, public attention in the United States was for a time focused on the purchase of Marsh Island, Louisiana, by Mrs. Russell Sage, and its permanent dedication to the cause of wild-life protection. This delightful event has brought into notice the Louisiana State Game Preserve of 13,000 acres near Marsh Island, and its hinterland (and water) of 11,000 acres adjoining, which constitutes the Ward-McIlhenny Wild Fowl Preserve. These three great preserves taken together as they lie form a wild-fowl sanctuary of great size, and of great value to the whole Mississippi Valley. Now that all duck-shooting therein has been stopped, it is safe to predict that they shortly will be inhabited by a wild-fowl population that will really stagger the imagination.

Duck-Shooting "Preserves." —A ducking "preserve" is a large tract of land and water owned by a few individuals, or a club, for the purpose of preserving exclusively for themselves and their friends the best possible opportunities for killing large numbers of ducks and geese without interference. In no sense whatever are they intended to preserve or increase the supply of wild fowl. The real object of their existence is duck and goose slaughter. For example, the worst goose-slaughter story on record comes to us from the grounds of the Glenn County Club in California, whereon, as stated elsewhere, two men armed with automatic shotguns killed 218 geese in one hour, and bagged a total of 452 in one day.

I shall not attempt to give any list of the so-called ducking "preserves." The word "preserve," when applied to them, is a misnomer. Thirteen states have these incorporated slaughtering-grounds for ducks and geese, the greatest number being in California, Illinois, North Carolina and Virginia. California has carried the ducking-club idea to the limit where it is claimed that it constitutes an abuse. Dr. Palmer says that one or two of the club preserves on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley contain upward of 40 square miles, or 25,000 acres each! With considerable asperity it is now publicly charged (in the columns of The Examiner of San Francisco) that for the unattached sportsmen there is no longer any duck-shooting to be had in California, because all the good ducking-grounds are owned and exclusively controlled by clubs. In many states the private game preserves are a source of great irritation, and many have been attacked in courts of law. [ [N] ]