Show RANGER E p P. COX GIVES OPINION ON BIG BG GAME CAME Each year forest officers are asked to make a report giving a census estimated of all gamo game predatory and fur-bearing fur animals on their respective districts It is Impractical of courSe course for the Ranger to actually count each and every deer elk coyote etc on the range He can however count the deer on a certain portion of the range observe the signs and nd tracks of the deer over the range discuss th the matter with stockmen biological cal hunters and others and then harmonize if he can the different opinions with his bis own and make animate an e. e tI which is iq probably not I H I so o q far off The latest estimate for District No No 1 Twelve Mile Six Sib Mile 1 and Manti ManU Canyons Is 1500 deer elk In summer summer only 4 bear 10 lions and coyotes and cats During the past three years we have been killing Approximately bucks annually It Is Iz believed that we have more bucks left leU than we ve kill and that we have four or five times as many does and fawns as there are bucks Following this line of argument it would seem that 1500 deer Is a conservative I estimate If you were to ride up j I I j I over o the tile lower range now a few d days ys after the snow storms you rou would see tracks as thick as if sheep had bad been there Fresh snow makes the tracks show up more than at nt other times Then Then too the mating season is now on and the deer are perhaps moving about more than usual In Six Mile and Manti lanti canyons we we have comparatively little range facIng facing fac facIng Ing the south and md as the snow gets too deep on the north facings most of our deer go farther south Into Twelve Mile for winter There and andIn andin andin In Willow Creek and Salina Canyon large areas of browse range sloping gently to the south makes Ideal winter range for these game animals anIma ani anI- ma mals It is usually well into April or orMay orMay orMay May before very verr many of the deer return to the summer range and therefore the damage by deer by-deer deer on the north part of the district Is not nearly so noticeable as It is In Twelve Mile where they congregate in winter and early spring The heavier the snow the less open range range they have in winter and the themore themore themore more noticeable becomes the dam dam- age Some winters deer not only closel closely graze the snowberry birchleaf birchleaf birch- birch leaf lea other browses which are highly palatable to to cattle and sheep but also eat cat the foliage off the Juniper Less than tw ago wool- wool growers from the north end of the Manti ManU Forest opposed the resolution favoring an open se season son on does We want vant more deer they said And generally general y throughout the state there is a feeling that we haven't too oo many deer However since they are arc not evenly distributed heavy damage is caused on the arena areas that are overstocked and there are aro people as well as s stockmen stockmen stockmen stock stock- men who feel that a a. flexible law permitting correction of ot the evil is i needed This authority can either be placed in the hands of the state i Fish and Game Commissioner or a commission so that necessary action action action ac ac- ac- ac tion can be taken where needed Ed P. P Cox |