The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-06-07
The Walton League Meeting

Fish and game resources are a business asset which no
state can afford to neglect or to treat merely as a mat
ter Of idle recreation. That is why the state meeting of
the 1zaak Walton league here next week is such an i'm
portant conference Of sportsmcn interested in seeing
North Dakota handle these resources wisely.
North Dakota is not so highly developed in the matter
Of fish. The character of the terrain does not lend itself
to this form Of wild life. Minnesota on the east and
Montana on the west do. Those states have the streams
and lakes for propagatng fish. Moreover, in Montana
the mountain streams and lakes are ideal trout preserves
and trout fishing is the beau ideal of outdoor piscatorial
sport. North Dakota, on the other hand, has only the
muddy Missouri and the slough like lakes as habitats
for its fish, and this narrows the supply down to certain
plebeian varieties not considered gamy in comparison to
the what one finds in the neghboring state waters. New
ertheless North Dakota's fish potentialities are import
ant and worth developing.
1t is in its feathered game that North Dakota shines.
1t has the making Of a feathered paradise in this respect
in the presence of wild duck and prairie chickens, grouse
and Chinese pheasants. The ponds and lakes which do
not afford good fishing waters are ideal resorts for the
wild water fowl. Nature, more or less, claims this phase
of game life as its own activity. The regular seasonal
m%igrations of the wild water fowl north and south keep
up the supply. They are not fowl which the state can
stock. If the supply is to be preserved the only aid that a
state can extend Is in the closed seasons which permit
propagation to increase the numbers.
But In the matter of upland birds, both restriction
and stocking can build up this game resource. Both of
these practices arc being applied in North Dakota to
the dissemination Of the Chinese pheasant over its terri
tory.
But in its handling Of the propagation of game North
Dakota has hardly kept pace with other states, which
have gone about the job with system and science. Penn
sylvania, for instance, almost denuded of game, under
the regime of Clifford Pinchot as governor and DR.. Joseph
Kalbfus as commissioner, was made over into a paradise
in which deer, bear, elk, quail, pheasants and rabbits
again abound.
In this state, charge the %sportsmen, the stocking with
birds like the pheasant has been carried on almost solely
by individual initiative through such organizations as the
Isaak Walton league. The money realized in hunting IL
censes, instead of being applied to purchase of young
birds to release on the various game preserves, it is
charged, has been frittered away in game commission
expenses. This issue will come up in the election in the
form Of a referendum to approve the law passed by the
legislative session of 1929 creating a one-man game ad-
ministration. In this way the overhead can be lowered,
the %sportsrnen feel, and more of the game and fish in
come devoted to propagatng activities.
The Walton league is planning to make a deep i'm
press on the public by its meeting here. 1t wants Da-
kotans to become fish and game minded, to take a great
er interest In its wild life, such as it is. In a state which
once numbered among Us jewellers such a mighty hunter
as Theodore Roosevelt, the goal and ideal of the league
arc fitting. The more such ideas perlncate the public,
league can increase the respect Of DaEotans for the
states wild life resources it will be doing the common
wealth a benefit.