OCR Text |
Show GAME CONDITIONS IN THE UINTAH BASIN (By D. J. Thompson, Deputy Game Warden.) After Awnty yieara -of experience tartd work in tho ftsb and game do partraent -of Utah, 1 think that I am in a, Dositbon to-Jre.a Pair report ot g&tno conditions in the Uintah basin mountains, streams, lakes and -forests, at the preoent time. In 19 OS, at the time of the opening of tho Uintah Indian reservation, our streams were foil &! fish, as the Indians In-dians are not to much for Ashing. In J.&05, when tho white man began to settle among the Indians, a man did not need to be a real fisherman to go out and get a mess of fish In a few hrours. , Here are- some of the reasons why fish'ng haa gone from toad to worse, as the years go by. Today there are at leaet one hundred men or wmnen who go fishing, to one man -or woman wom-an who fished In 1905. One great reason for this increase in fishermen, fisher-men, Is that grjod roads have been buiM to our streams and forests. Another An-other big reason why the fishing has gradually become worse, is that as 1 soon as the settlers located on their J homesteads, they at once built canals and ditches, and diverted tho water Irani its natural flow, by putting ob- j strtictions in the river, ankl' changing its natural source. Some rivers in the 'basin, have as- many as ni canals coming out of 0110 river. It is tho nature of the native trout to go up stream in high water. They go up stream for the purpose oC spawning and usually deposit their spawn In email side streams or rif- lles and as the water recedes, the fish drift backrdown stream, and in this way, thousand lot small lish go out into the open canals and in the fall the head-gates are closed and they are stranded In the dry canals. 1 have been asked many times by lish- jfrmen, why the state uocs not put in screens, the people being taxed (aplenty. 1 want to state to these :reo)ie, that the fish and game do- j partraent dots iaot receive one d-.l- jlar of the peoples taxes, neither" d jwe get an appropriation ironi the j j ;-:at(v legislature. THe only funds we j have, :j;v. froni the .-.aic of ih .'') I .gatne licenses, fln-eg, and the -sale f j beaver iurs, taken under a .stale ix-r-! 1 " ' ! ji.iit. The game department u:ex not' ,recoiv.- funds enoimh to put i-,, ' 1 serctn.-j and maintain the'm: I:eside ! jit is aeuinst the state law to put in jny screen or device that 7Z o"- struct the How of water. j I think that t greafKt depletion jof our native trout, is caused by the j trapping anc? hilling nf tiie lJeaver in 1 jth.i upper mountain streams. "1 1 .think that the beaver are the best jTriend that tho fishermen lias, 1st the following reasons: It is the habit of the beaver tr I build his dams and houses oh some -small side stream, or largo spring that run.-? intio. tho main river, and as I haVe said before, it Is tho habit of the fish to drift into tho small ' streams to deposit their spawn, and usually most of the larger fish get ' back into the main river before the ! water gets toi low, The heaver ! builds his dams, causing'tho water to ' back up, and causes nature's' roaring ponds and natural feed for the small ' fish and this not all, these ponds' hold the water back so that It dots not run off all at lonce, which protects pro-tects the small fish from cloud-bursts and high water, and the beaver dams alao conserves the watCiTand causes 1 1 springs to come up .below the dams. . But the greatest thing of all is that the email flsh are protected from their ancestors, for it Is- a known fact that wihen feed ie scarce, that even the trout will eat their own Off-spring. The rfteh and ame de-par.tment de-par.tment bze decided' not to take bearer to the Uintah basin Just for their furs, hut only where beaver we doing actual damage In the lower low-er river and then to take .them allye and transport them to tlear water steams where they chn help to stock the .stream with ibeaver. The department depart-ment has had a beaver trap made so that the beaver can be taken alive. Right here I want to say that beaver do not cat flsh as lots of petople think. They are vegetarians and subsist solely on bark and roots. The Uintah basin is the worst part of the state to handle from a game stanU' point, as here we have the Indians In-dians to contend with who from his traditions, or treaties, claims the right to fish and hunt as long as the water runs and the grass is green. Bat we must protect the beaver, and not alow them all to Ibecomc exterminated, exter-minated, as there Is grave danger oT I heir becoming unless the people understand un-derstand that we need the beaver, if li.-hiiig .is to become better, that bea---er are a protection ua the small fLh, a censorver cf water, and a protection protec-tion to the forest, as the beaver dams hold' the Hoods back and prevent the young vegetation from being all washed away. 1 want to say this much for the Indian, the full Iblood never has given the department much trouble. He can. be talked to and is reasonable. Hut there are some of the near whites that know it all, and they are tho ones that give us miost or the Indian trouble. But it is the wlr.to-Indian- that does most of ibe violating of tho game laws, and it has got to the point, that the Indian is uiiiy used as a fencs so that the j vhiteiiiast can get away with the ft'Ti. I j'fhey wiil either ship the furs. Ucing I jan InUiaus name, or get somo sort of j a bill of .sale from some would-bo j j Indian. The worst feature of trap-! li'MBg Is that, the trapper broaks the heaver dams and takes all .;li- 'U.-.-tv-l(r, and the fir.-l sl-rm thai o?:ne-j. ! .he mh are lost. leaving nothing but ' a iiy or wa.rncd-on-. riv.;v Led. Tlir" state has iitv..:r been able to jcal.v'et an In.'.i'an. 1 have bad many leases but have lot. ovary one as they I ji.lv.ay.-; have 3 jury tr.'aj. and tho sru- timent stems to b? for the- lnd!an. 1 TUe beaver section is unpopular u-Iih most men. I have had jurymen come to me after tho trial, anv ay j that they know so and" so is guilty, iibut what good are the beaver anyway, any-way, they just cat Ih? iish. get rid of the beaver and then we will rave good fishing. .There is a very friendly feeling with the Indian department p;h-.-:nls 1 toward the game department. Mr. Tidwell, superintendent of Indian if- fairs, can plainly .see that, uuicss the I state and Indian department get together, to-gether, that there will soon be no game left for Indian or white, Mtd unless the game clubs and game departments, de-partments, get the support of the public In general, there w"ill coon Le left of the beaver only their teeth-marks teeth-marks on the dry timber, lo iell that there were ever any beaver iu lhe country. I have tried for years to get an Indian case in the Fodorat court, for then the Indians would be (From Page Ona.) '. GAME CONDITION'S IX THE I'lXTAH BASIX j satisfied with a decision, as the In- ; dians think that anything coming ; from Uncle Sam is ok. I was lor- i tunate. to get a goad' Indian case in , Waeatch county, away from the In- : dian nentime-nt, and we bad no trotrble finding these Indians guilty j iu the etato courts. Tbia ease is-be- ! jlng transferred to the Federal court. ' So, utter many years of trouble, Jt look like we will find out Just what I the Indiana rights are. I have been asked by many fisher- i men, earing why don't you plant j eomc fish in pur fctreame, and for the ; information of those who do not I know, I am giving the number of fieli that the game (department has j planted Jn Duchesne and Uintah counties from June 132S to June 1928, from Duchesne rlv-er on the i west to Brush creek, Uintah county, on the east. We have planted Rainbow 2,330.000 Eastern Brook . . .' 1S4.000 Native trout 4G.000 J Salmon 34,000 j Total 2,204,000 i As you can plainly sec that the ftato has don? its part, and if these fish had .lived, we would have plenty fir-h coming al'jng. Rut the fish were j planted too small and Yrfuny were ij !o?t in the swift streams, being tak- j cn right out of the hatcheries and : eir.g hand-fed tho sudden change was too' much, and we know the result. re-sult. Besides', when fish are planted plant-ed too small, they only make good bait for .the. native trout. There is f a move on fool all over the stale to jiniild rearing poruls and not release ? I the fish into the streams until they l r.re at least five Inches long. We are 1 pleased to report that tho slate com- missiouv.?, J. Arthur Mcchain, met 1 recently with tho game clubs of the basin and pledged to builM' at least I three rearing ponds at th-; While-rocks While-rocks hatchery, and to have them completed by July fir.''. o.f this year. Do the sportsmen of tho Uintah ba- I s!n realize that we have more clear water streams and lakes than all the X rest of Ihe state of Utah. There are J more than one thousand live lakes from the Granddaddies on the west to Wild mountains on the east, and less than ten of these laRes have fish ( in them at this time, and when we j plant Iheni these upper streams ami jj lakes will keep t lie main .streams J blocked al:;o. Tlie deer are o:i the infTv-ase and : the last five years- t"o deer h::v' ' jr.crcaiod nt least fifty pjreeut, a:i ! wo alo liave more natural range for oik than any other part of tho ITaic. We have threu goo live gamr- ; clubs in the Ihasin. Lets -all join one i u th.-'He clubs, and all pull togeth 'r for more fish and game?, and make Vhvlali basin lakes ana1 streams attract, at-tract, not only people of the basin, iel be made the sportm:n's pafuuTe of the entire state. |