The Nome nugget., 1928-01-21

! oAA- OAOn 0dWo <hooVNAoSAoA 10 lending valuable assistance in the proper protection of game and fur bearing animals. It Is the aim of the association to include in it's membership every trapper and ev- cry prospector within the bound aries of the district and 1t is ex- pected that the membership will reach the thousand mark before Spring. Splendid cooperation also is being received by the commits sion oy trappers and prospectors in the Kuskokwim district. but there are some localities in which 1 conditions are not so favorable. There has been over trapping of beaver, for example. in some sec tions, and 1t is believed that the l commission will find it necessary 1 to close those areas to trapping as a means of bringing the beaver back. MT. Gardner hopes that the time will come when trapping will be so conducted that it will not | require drastic regulations. There I is no reason, he says, why trapping cannot be carried on every season without endangering the continued increase of fur bearers. When the trappers realize that and keep their annual harvest os pelts within | reasonable bounds, they will pro- vide for themselves permanent and increasing source of revenue. The fur situation at the present time, )r the wiiole, is described by Mir Gardner as being very fair. Regulations Unchanged
 The regulations governing trap | pers have not been changed this season and no changes are con templated before the annual meet ing of the commission next Feb 1 ruary. The extent of the changes at that time will be governed largely by reports received by the commission from the various dis tricts during the winter.
 Game Planting Progressing
 The planting of game and fur bearing animals in various sec tions of the Territory is progress ing very satisfactorily. Mir. Gard ner says. and there is to be fur ther enlargement of the program during the coming year. the plans l including the stocking of bison in ! the Fairbanks district during the | early spring. A herd of fifteen an | imals will be imported from South region will be stocked with elk. Deer may follow later. The law under which the stocking is made possible, permits the carrying out of only one project at a time for each division.
 Very satisfactory results are re- ported from those districts where stocking has been tried thus far, MT. Gardner says. deer and elk have been stocked in southeastern Alaska with very gratifying results. Good reports also have been rec eived from the Kodiak district. The Seward Peninsula district is to be stocked with mountain sheep l just as soon as the animals can be | captured for the purpose.
 Large Caribou Run
 Speaking of game conditions in the Interior. Mir. Gardner said there appears to be plenty of car ibou in the country. recent count showing upwards of half million animals in one locality. The count was made at rapids while the car ibou were passing given point and it is regarded as the most ac- curate check ever obtained. This would seem to indicate that the country is we'll supplied with cari- bou, since the animals counted at
 Rapids form only a small par: of the country's total The preserva
 tion of the caribou and other game animals which form one of Alaska's s most promising assets depends
 largely upon public sentiment. in
 the opinion of MT. Gardner. The H Alaska Game Commission can do
 only so much to afford needed pro-
 lection. he says It must have