The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-08-16

this process a beautiful canyon
ceases to be beautiful, and instead
of being preserved and enjoyed for
a thousand years, it has shrinking
beauty for ten or fifteen years.
Boy Scouts Not
Blameless.
So much has been said about pre-
serving these things for the Boy
Scouts, one would naturally think
the Scouts would be the most ardent
defenders of the wilds, but Boy
Scouts with all their training to pre-
serve nature, forget themselves
when they get out into it. A study
of some of their camping grounds
and the wreckage they leave behind
them, makes a rather discouraging
outlook were it not for the good in
tentions of the. boys and scout
masters and. the abundant means we
have. for, spreading information and
a common understanding of how to
preserve these resources.
. There is now beautiful custom of
having fathers and sons go out on
camping trips together, and where
they organize and go out in an
orderly way to have a good time
studying nature and enjoying it, one
would expect to find natures re-
sources very well respected and pre-
served, but observations are disap-
pointing. But this does not mean
that they have not gone part way in
preserving things as compared with
the average citizen who goes out for
time. .
The average fellow or the average
family or crowd going out into al
canyon or valley to enjoy the wild,
sometimes set pine tree Attire to en-
joy having big fagot. They often
cut down slender pine saplings or|
poles when they should be left to
grow into. saw logs. They chop
down brush when it ought to be left
to shade the ground and the smaller
plants. They pull into mans field
and trespass SO that he becomes their
enemy. They turn their horsesl
loose in his precious little spot of
meadow that he is preserving to
now There may be oceans of grass
where they could picket their horses
where he could not NOW it, and he
might be willing for the visitors to
have that, but they sprawl all over
and waste things like the COW that
stands on top of hay pile to eat all
she can and then commit nuisance. on
the rest of it.
In the early settlement of Idaho,
the rights of the settler were recog-
nized and an effort was made to pro-
.ect him by enacting the famous two
nile limit law, requiring the sheep
men to keep their bands two miles
back from every settlers fences. He
needed range around him for his
COWS and horses and when the big
lerd went in and grazed off every
hing right up to his fences, even tho
hey left plenty of grass five miles
way, that was of no use to him.
The sportsmen of today are acting
.uite like the sheepmen of an earlier
ime-they rush out when the
hicken season opens and pounce
pom the little flocks that have grown
p around the homesteader and ,
lean them out in day, leaving him
othing. He settles there because of I
he wild life and the local resources
f various kinds, and the city fellow
ONES and grabs the cream. The S
My limit on his selfishness and ]
ruelty are the legal limit of what he {
lay Stay in a day, and that is no
to the game nor the home q
leader, for one sportsman follows /
mother or they go in squads, and
can up the community at once. The f
inc is true of trout, wild fruits and /
arious other things. The fellow
ON the city or town chooses the t
1vantages which the town affords S
Id then in season, rushes out and
rabs the cream that grew or de-