The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-05
The YELLOWSTONE PARK
Increased Appropriation for the
Protection of Game.
MORE SCOUTS ARE NEEDED
a Report Upon the Plan of Enlarging
the Boundaries of the Park--The
Teton Reservation and the
jackson Lake Country.
Washington Bureau of the Standard.
No. Has G Street n. w. I

washington Bureau of the Standard
No. 1145 G Street n. w.
Washington, Jan. 2-The report of
Assistant Secretary of the Interior
Thomas Ryan on the region south of
the Yellowstone National park has
been completed and will be distribut-
ed to senators and congressman on the
reopening of congress. This report is
in reply to a resolution adopted by
the senate in December, The resolu-
ton provided as follows:
The secretary of the interior is
directed to send to the senate all the
information in the possession of his
department in relation to the region
south of and adjoining the Yellowstone
National park: also what steps should
be taken to preserve the game in the
park, and whether the region south
of the park should not be put under the
same control as the national park, IN
order to prevent the extinction of the
herds of wild game roaming therein"
In Assistant Secretary Ryan's re-
port he says the existing law for the
protection of game in the Yellowstone
National park is being as rigidly en-
forced as the limited force (military
patrol and civil scouts) at the com
mand of the acting superintendent CT
the park will permit.
To afford better protection for the
game therein increased appropriations
for the protection and Improvement of
the park are needed, to the end that
additional civil scouts may be employ
ed to aprehend poachers and other
depredators upon the game.
Regarding so much Of the resclu-
ton as inquiries whether the region
south of and adjoining the Yellowstone
y park should not be put under the
tsame control as the national park in
order to prevent the extinction of tie
herds of wild game roaming therein,
/ have this to say: That region is a
part of and within the jurisdiction of
the state of Wyoming. the control of
wild game therein falls within the eX-
elusive jurisdiction of the state and
will remain within it's exclusive jur-
fsdiction unless that region is made
a. part of the Yellowstone National
park by an extension of the boundar-
les of the latter. That such extension
can be had so as to embrace this re-
gion within the exclusive jurisdiction
of the United States is shown by the
following reservation of authority con-
of Wyoming into the union.
While the title to most, if not all
of he land in the region south of and
adjoining the park is in the United
States, it must be remembered that the
ownership of the wild game found
within the limits of a state rests in
the state, as has been determined by
several decisions, of the supreme court
By the constitution congress is au-
/ thorized to make all needful rules ald
regulations respecting the territory or
other property belonging to the Unit
: ed States and in the exercise of this
authority can regulate the disposal and
use of the public lands whether situate
within or without a state.
While congress may not be able to
authorize the capture or killing of
game, the. ownership of which is in a
state, it is believed that it can pre-
scribe how and when the public lands
may be used and can restrict or al
together deny access to or entrance
upon the public lands, or any of them
for the purpose of pursuing or hunt
ing game. 1t seems, therefore, that
there are two ways in Which the gen.
eral government can effectively take
action tending to preserve wild game
which roams over the region south of
and adjoining the park. The first of
these is to include this region within
tine Yellowstone park by an extension
fof its boundaries, pursuant to the res
tervation of authority made in the act
admitting the state of Wyoming into
the union; and the second is to prohib-
it anyone from entering or being upon
the public lands in that region for the
purpose of pursuing or hunting wild
game.
The lands in question have here
4 tofore been set aside by a presidential
proclamation as a forest reservation,
and the secretary of the interior is
authorized to regulate their occupan-
cy and use, and to preserve the forests
therein from destruction. 1t has re-
Gently (Nov. II lasD been ruled by
attorney general that persons violating
these regulations are amenable to the
/. laws of the United States and can he
punished therefor but whether the
regulations which the secretary of the
interior is thus authorized to make
are confined to those which in their
nature tend to preserve and avoid de-
struction of the forests, and whether
hunting within such reservations is
injurious or tends to their destruction
are question which have not been con-
sidered 1t may, therefore, be doubtful
whether, under existing legislation, the
secretary of the interior is clothed with
sufficient authority to make regulations
prohibiting the pursuing or hunting Of
game within the region named. Thus
far no attempt has been made to make
such a regulation.
Z I'm the administration of this forest
reservation assistance can of course
be indirectly given to the state in the
enforcement of its game laws. and to
- -