The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-06-18

has there been any record of such instances, nor any. reported simi- lar occurrences. Fish, swimming right at the doors of the ranches. are easier to obtain, cheaper, and less dangerous to land, and, most important of all, form a more de- sirable food for the foxes
 No Indiscriminate Slaughter
 No. 5.-There has been no "in- discriminate slaughter, and in stead of g decrease in numbers of brown bear in the past two years, there has been an actual in crease.
 Records of the Alaska Game Commission, Federally -constitut- ed body composed of four resident Alaskans appointed by the Secre- tary of Agriculture, and a fifth member who under the Actt of Congress, known as the Alaska Game Law, passed in 1925, must be the Alaska Agent of the Unit ed States Biological Survey, show that in the four years, 1928, 29, 80, and '31, only 26 bears were killed on Admiralty Island. If we accept the population estimate made by the National Association of Wild Life Conservationists as accurate-3,00 900 to the Island-then the four year kill is not equal to 5 per cent of the probable animal increase after allowing for such losses as infant and senile mortal ity and internecine strife among the bears themselves. fr
 Not Suitable For Park
 No 6.-There is on Admiralty Island not a single feature that would justify its creation as a national park. 1t hasn't a glacier of sufficient size or importance to justify naming, and there is only one small patch of perpetual ice on it. There are larger brown bear in several other localities in the Territorial coastal range. Its timber is just repetition of the timber growths prevailing through out Southeast Alaska. Its noun tains are dwarfed by the giants on the mainland and on adjacent large islands. Its harborS, some of them beautiful. have thousands of counterparts all along the thou sands of miles of Alaska's coast line
 No. 7-Resldeac5 nave not urged clearing" Admiralty Island They have, and do, urge that industrial development of the island be per- mitted under sound economic prac- tlces and in accord with scientific principles of forest conservation.
 Forests To Be Maintained
 It might interest you to know that it would require some 75 years to cut over the pulp allotment conditionally awarded to MT George T. Cameron, publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, and MT liar ry Chandler, of the Los Angeles Times, and that at the expiration of that time and the completion of the first cutting, the experts Iof the Forest Service of the Unit ed States are agreed that the sec ond growth timber and small stuff uncut on the first round will pro- vide an even better grade of tim Der and more of it than was ob- tained in the original cutting. That doesn't mean clearing" the island, but rather harvesting the timber crop of a vast empire that is and has been for many years in economic loss to both Alaska and the nation at large, while Ameri- can manufacturers of wood-pulp and newsprint have invested nil- lions of dollars in Canadian forests and manufacturing plants
 Even Break For Wild Life In this kind of timber utiliza- ton, wild life will be given an even break. Bears will not be ex- terminated. To some extent they will benefit, since clearly away the tangled mass of jungle and wind fall timber that now clogs the will derness forests will permit natural food such as blue berries and other berries, indigenous to the country to grow in greater abundance than is possible under present condi- tions. No Alaskan has ever ad- vocated the use of poison to ex- terminate bears. An employee of the Forest Service, once asked as to an efficient method of slaughter, obviously pointed out that poison was the most efficacious. How ever, it is illegal to use poison in taking any kind of game in the Territory, and that law is rigidly enforced by Federal officers who have the fullest support from the general public.
 Rich Resources Affected
 No. 8.-It would cost a pretty penny to lock up Admiralty Island. There are on the island millions of dollars worth of private prop erty, including large salmon can- neries, gold mines, logging camps, a coal mine, several small com munities, all of it worth a not in- considerable sum- TTappers earn their livelihood by their annual catches from it's valleys. Indians