The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-03-25
GAME PROTECTION
Local Club Taking Steps Toward
Wild Life Preservation

lQent OF the American Gdme frOleC-
tive and Propagation association
when he lectures on Friday night in
the county court house under the
auspices of the fish and game club.
Mr.. Burnham's work is far reaching
and covers campaign to preserve
wild life over the entire country.
Something of the necessity for this
campaign is apparent upon reading
the introduction to one of the as
sociation's bulletins.
1T is hard to imagine what some
of the old gunners who died forty,
thirty, even twenty years ago, would
think if they could return for days
shooting on their favorite grounds.
"They might well believe, as they
trod the fields where prairie chick
ems were wont to rise with thunder
Gus roar, or countless bevies of quail
sped in bullet flight from beneath
the pointers quivering nose, that the
land of plenty they once knew had
been visited by a devastating
plague; that some malevolent di-
sease had spread death among the
myriads of feathered creatures that
were used to haunt the open street
ches. Or again, should a resurrected
sportman of those bounteous days,
shove his snub-nosed boat through
the rushes of some slough or bayou
where the wild rice drops its harvest
in the shallow waters, what a chill
would clutch his heart as the silence
of the place, Through the shifting
mists of early morning he would
strain eyes in vain for the flash
ing squaGroLs of water fowl that
were always there before, bursting
in upon his VISION from out the wells
of fog. Nainiy he would scan the
horizon for the Grant hosts that
once poured in endless numbers from
the Northland with the falling of the
leaves. Woodducks, mallards, pin
tails, pigeons, where are they?
Where are the little, darting teal?
Where are the redheads and the can
vas backs? In their places our hun
ter would find strings of decoys dane
ing on the waters of every lake and
pond to lure the last old wary NAL
lards to their death.
And at twilight, as he sadly took
his way from the haunts he knew so
we'll he might stop in some woodland
where wild pigeons used to roost,
knowing that no pestilence could de-
stroy the mighty flocks that once
filled the sky with blackness, shut
ting out the sun. He would find no
pigeons now, and he would wonder.
1T would be the same If big game
were the quarry that he sought. He
might hunt the buffalo, the stately
elk, or graceful antelope. He might
invade the mountain Businesses for
sheep. And ever, as his keen eye
searched expectantly for the signs
that should be there but are not. he
would feel the desolation of the for
ests and the hills.
This is exaggeratlon you will say:
you who know the favored spots
where wild life still exists in COM
paratiye abundance. You may know
places where ducks are plentiful.
where the bobwhite calls necessarily,
or where Virginia deer spring from
the thickets at your approach. But
what seems to you like generosity on
the part of nature, would seem Mig
gardly to the hunter of a few decades
ago. Where you see hundreds of
birds he saw thousands, and where
you kill one he killed hundred.
That was not sport you may OBJ
Ject, but that is not the point. If we
could bring one of these veterans
from out the past, he would see the
matter in its true perspective. To
him it would be simple. He would
say IF the millions of yesterday
are gone because we helped our
selves too greedily, surely this scat
tered remnant of today will be gone
tomorrow unless you are far wiser
than we were. There are more of
you to hunt. You have more and
better guns.
We should not blame too severely
those who took such awful toll when
natures storehouse seemed mex,
haustible. They could not foresee
the results of their profligate use of
the riches that were heaped before
them. Rather, it is ourselves who
are to blame. who have continued to
waste our slim heritage. long since
we knew it could not last il we did
not husband it. We have not been
content to take our interest. the ma.
tural yearly increase, but have con.
unued TO make inroads on our prin.
cipaL the breeding stock. If both
principal and interest are gone to-
morrow ii will be our fault.
so let us say to him we have in
Voked from the happy hunting
grounds that were: Brother you
see your handiwork and ours. Your
chance of make or mar is gone. But
.nat you may rest more peacefully
through the years to come before the
hnal reckoning, see what we are do
ing to bind up the broken horn of
plenty We now have laws designed
TO Keep the wanton from taking more
than just proportion of the game
that belongs to us all Do not smile
we Know that in your day there
were some such laws and that they
were seldom taken seriously. Our
laws, too, have sadly miscarried in
many cases, but some of us are work
ing hard to make them right and IN
see that they are enforced. We have
mad many disappointments. II is a
hard tight and a slow one, but though
The end is not in sight. we are surely
making progress. We believe that
We will win.
Not only are We trying to nut a
stop TO foolish slaughter bni
strange as 1t may seem to you OF an
oider generation, we are raising
ZANE 10 restock our barren covers.
Many states now have their game
farms and every year thousands of
Dirds are set at liberty. birds that
would be unfamiliar to you. gorgeous
pneasants. and little, brown partridg.
IS from across the seas. You NAV
not Ike the idea, but now II Is the
Only way. Soon. We hope. We shall
be rafcinc fho-.-.-a- = u