The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-10-24
GAME PRESERVE AGAIN PROPOSED

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That the idea of the formation of a federal game preserve adj
joining the Yellowstone park and extending ~northward along the
Absaroka and Gallatin Forest Reserves in Park county almost to
Emigrant, for the purpose of protecting park elk from being I'M
duly slaughtered during the annual fall open season on those ami
mails, is not a dead issue, is seen in the dissemination throughout
the state last week of press stories in which Horace M. Albright,
superintendent of the park, is quoted as deploring the extension
by the state game and fish commission of the open season in Park
county from Oct. Is to Dec. 20, instead of from Oct. Is to Nov. Is,
as in other Montana game countries.
Officials of the Interior department, of which both the national
parks and forest reserves are a part, have made several attempts
to create the elk and other wild game preserve in Park county, but
without success, the principal objection advanced being that it
would be the means of depriving Park county of a large revenue
from taxes on ranch lands which are now either privately owned
or on which domestic livestock are now allowed to publicly Craze.
When the subject was preached two years ago, and when it
appeared that the officers of the Interior department were in a
fair way of putting the project over, most strenuous objections
were made on the part of prominent Park county ranchers on the
grounds that the government would be protecting and encouraging
the industry of raising game animals for show, to the detriment of
the private raising of domestic livestock for profit. While this
objection was raised by the ranchers, they also stoutly asserted
that as the government was protecting and fostering the propaga-|
tin of elk in the park, the government should see to it that suf-
fcient feed be grown and provided for the animals to keep them
within the park boundaries in hard winters, instead of allowing
them to drift out of the snowy highlands down into the valleys
to the financial detriment of the ranchers whose fences being torn
down and whose hay stacks were being depleted by the protected
animals.
The subject appears to be of sufficient interest to the people
of Gallatin county to permit of the republication of the Mr.. Al
brights Livingston interview, in full, as follows:
What is said to be a freak clause in the game law as pertain
ing to the killing of elk, makes Park county the only county in
Montana that will permit the shooting of elk from Oct. Is to Dec.
90, while in other counties the season is from Oct. Is to Nov. Is.
The result, according to Park officials, will be that the winter
SHOWS and cold weather of the latter part of November and early
December will drive the herds to the lowlands and a slaughter
similar to that of a few years ago is bound to result.
when asked concerning the law Superintendent Albright
said it was too bad. He said it was his opinion that the real sports
men of Park county were not in favor of a season that would per-
NIT the elk that come down out of the park to be killed as would
be dOmesticated COWS. The average sportsman does not go out to
kill a deer or an elk, he said, with the idea of obtaining a winters
supply of meat, but rather for the sport of hunting and bagging his
game with the meat a secondary item.
"The condition of the mountain fastness at the present time,
Mr.. Albright said, is such that the elk are already coming down
several weeks early. They are in fine condition because of the
abundance Of feed on the summer range and the winter feeding
grounds do not warrant a slaughter for fear the animals will starve
as was the case in the previous year. With the season from Oct.
10 to Nov, Is, the elk is in a territory where it makes hunting a
real sport, but if an additional month or five weeks is added to
this date, they are so low on the range and so far out of their native
haunts that they become a stationary target with no chance to
escape the hunter who takes advantage of the situation.
superintendent Albrights theory is that the park is primarily
a game preserve and unless some means of protection for the herds
that roam in the park and that are just now getting back to their
normal number, is provided, there is little use of attempting to
keep the standard number of elk in the park. He said he was
aware of several instances where Livingston and Billings hunters
had gone to the hunting grounds the year so many elk were killed
and refused to shoot them because of the lack of real sport in the
target provided.
"The worst enemy of the elk in the park is the coyote and the
timber wolves and 229 of the former with eight wolves have been
killed during the last summer, the superintendent said"