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Show izT-: I " ' ' j Cliff Freiwell TRAIL TALK Editor's Note: The element of time has interferred with the regular publishing of "Trail Talk." But commencing with this issue "Trail Talk" will become be-come a regular feature. We invite our readers to contribute con-tribute to this column. Send us fishing stories, hunting stories, and reports of your observations in the great world of Nature. PREDATORS are no respec-tors respec-tors of the. season. During the months of the deep snows they wreak havoc among bands of game animals that bunch together togeth-er for protection or they pounce upon smaller game animals and iflocks of birds that find the winter going tough. A snowy blanket often hides the evidence that predators have been at work, but when the 'warming sun moves toward the north and the snows sink into the ground as if afraid of the sun's rays, the mute evidence of a never ending battle of nature comes forth. Then too, each new spring affords af-fords a fresh opportunity for the lover of nature to venture afield and there make first hand observations, ob-servations, observations which bear out plainer than all the written or spoken words the old, old story of the survival of the fittest. Springs herald made an early I announcement in the Uintah Ba-1 sin this year, and with his an-! nouncement comes a reminder from Ft. Duchesne the predatory birds will soon be at work. A report re-port from an unnamed observer calls our attention to the magpies "that prey on the eggs and young of game birds, migratory birds and poultry." THE report continues in a serious ser-ious note: "The situation was almost al-most unbearable last summer. The nests of migratory birds were broken up and the adult birds driven away. Game birds received the same treatment, and when the pheasant season opened, open-ed, hunters found that there were not nearly so many birds as they usually find. "I believe we should inaugurate inaugur-ate a program in Utah to clean up the predators, this program to include magpies, coyotes, stray cats and dogs. In South Dakota, game birds were being pushed over the "rim" by coyotes just as they are here in the "Basin. But U. S. government trappers undertook to teach boys who were interest, to trap coyotes and in that way the menace was partially par-tially overcome. "The boys and girls handled the waste paper drive; the scrap iron drive, and participated in the bond drives. These drives were excellent training, and with a little help and encouragement the boys and girls could carry out a program to destroy preda- tors Such a program would be of the greatest help to sportsmen, sports-men, stockmen, farmers, poultry poul-try men, and just plain lovers of birds. "Mr. George II. Harrison is one of the game commisisoners. Will you please get in touch with him, and with the Vernal Express work out a program for Uintah and Duchesne counties?" To this observer the feller who most of the talking on the "Trail" says yes, he'll support such a program, both with George and the Vernal Express, as well as others who are interested in-terested in seeing predators controlled. con-trolled. The writer remembers that not so many years ago he was called upon by the nationally famous cartoonist, Jay "Ding" Darling, then chief of the U. S. Biological Survey to make a trip down the Snake river in Idaho for the purpose of determining deter-mining the Canada goose nesting nest-ing population of the river. You know the islands of the Snake river are great goose nesting areas, and at the time the survey sur-vey was made nesting was at its height. About 100 nests were examined exam-ined during the survey, and out of that number, 62 were found to have been invaded by such birds as the magpie and the western raven. There on the islands is-lands of the Snake river were 62 Canada goose nests, the contents con-tents of which had been destroyed des-troyed by lustful, mischievous birds, 62 nests to which the adult birds would not return again during that nesting season. THE balance of nature is an ideal situation, a favorable condition con-dition that existed until man came along and upset it. There is no possible way to keep predators preda-tors from harming the more useful use-ful species of bird and animals. It is as natural for them to prey upon their fellow wild creatures as it is for a buck deer to grow antlers. J Man is left, therefore , only one choice. He can h i ' maintain something of a b l between predators and their " I by a well regulated sv1 control. To" exterminate tors would be to man's h ment, to control them to t! i 1 , vantage. 10 hb ii J |