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Show Ranger Reports On Big Game Census Each year forest officers are asked to make a report givir?g a census, estimated," of all game, predatory and fur-bearing animals on their respective res-pective districts. It is impractical, of course, for the ranger to actually count each and every deer, elk, coyote, coy-ote, etc., on the range. He can, however, how-ever, count the deer on a certain portion por-tion of the range, observe the signs and tracks of the deer over the range, discuss the matter with stockmen, biological bio-logical hunters and others and then harmonize, if he can, the ' different opinions with his own and make an estimate, which generally is probably not so far off. ' The latest estimate for district No. 1, Twelve Mile," Six Mile and Manti canyons, is 1500 deer, 150j elk, in summer only, 4 bear, 10 lions, and 175 coyotes and cats. ' ; During the past three years we have been killing approximately 250 bucks annually. It is believed; that we , have more bucks left than I we kill and that we have four or .'five times as many doe and fawn as there are bucks. Following this line I of', argument, argu-ment, it would seem that j'l50O deer is a conservative estimate. If you were to ride up over the lower range now, a few days after the snow storms, you would see trs-cks as thick as if sheep had been there. Fresh snow makes the tracks show up more conspicuous than at other timesi Then, too, the mating season is now ocn and the deer are perhaps moving about more than usual. In Six Mile and Manti canyons we have comparatively little range facing fac-ing the south, and as the snow gets too deep on the north facings, most of our deer go farther south j into Twelve Mile for winter. There and in Willow Creek and Salina canyon large areas of browse range -sloping gently to the south makes ideal winter win-ter range for these game anirdals. It is usually well into April for May before very many of the deer return to the summer range and, ; therefore, the damage by deer on the north part of the district is not nearly so noticeable notice-able as it is in Twelve Mile where they congregate in winter and early spring. The heavier the snow the less open range they have in winter and the more noticeable becomes the damage. dam-age. Some winters deer not only closely close-ly graze the snowberry, binchleaf, bitterbush, willows and other browses which are highly palat-ible toi cattle and sheep, but also eat the foliage off the juniper. ' Less than two ysars ago, woolgrow-ers woolgrow-ers from the north end of the Manti forest opposed the resolution favoring an open season on ,'does. "We want more deer," they said. And generally throughout the state there is a feeling that we haveu't too many deer. However, How-ever, since they are not evenly dis- (Continued on last page) j Ranger Reports On j Big Game Census i I (Continued from page 1) tributed heavy damage is caused on ' the areas that are overstocked and . there are people, sportsmen as well as stockmen, who feel that a flexible ; law permitting correction of the evil I is needed. This authority can either. ; be placed in the hands of the State I Fish & Game Commissioner or a com- mission so that necessary action can be taken where needed. |