NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES
(Continued)
MAINE:
There are reasons for the belief that Maine is conserving her large game
better than any other state or province in North America. One glance
over her laws is sufficient to convince anyone that instead of studying
the clamor of her shooting population, Maine has actually been studying
the needs of her game, and providing for those needs. If all other
states were doing equally well, the task of writing a book of admonition
would have been unnecessary. The proof of Maine's alertness is to be
found in the number of her extra short, or entirely closed, seasons on
game. For example:
Cow and calf moose are permanently protected.
Only bull moose, with at least two 3-inch prongs on its horns, may
be killed.
Caribou have had a close season since 1899.
On gray and black squirrels, doves and quail, there is no open
season.
The open season for deer varies from ten weeks to four weeks, and in
parts of three counties there is no open season at all.
Silencers are prohibited, and firearms in forests may be prohibited
by the Governor during droughts.
Nearly all wild-fowl shooting ends January 1, but in two places, on
December 1.
People who have not learned the facts habitually think of Maine as a
vast killing-ground for deer; and it is well for it to be known that the
hunting-grounds have been carefully designated, according to the
abundance or scarcity of game.
Maine has wisely chosen to regard her hunting-grounds and her deer as a
valuable asset, and she manages them accordingly. To be a guide in that
state is to be a good citizen, and a protector of game from illegal
slaughter. No non-resident may hunt without a licensed guide. The
licenses for the thousands of deer killed in Maine each year, and the
expenses of the visiting sportsmen who hunt them, annually bring into
the state and leave there a huge sum of money, variously estimated at
from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. One can only guess at the amount from the
number of non-resident licenses issued; but certainly the total can not
be less than $1,000,000.
Although Mr. L.T. Carleton is no longer chairman of the Commission of
Inland Fisheries and Game, the splendid services that he rendered the
state of Maine during his thirteen years of service, especially in the
creation of a good code of game laws, constitute an imperishable
monument to his name and fame.
There is very little that Maine needs in the line of new legislation,
or better protection to her game. With the enactment of a resident
license law and a five-year close season for woodcock, plover, snipe and
sandpipers, I think her laws for the protection of wild life would be
sufficiently perfect for all practical purposes. The Pine-Tree State is
to be congratulated upon its wise and efficient handling of the
wild-life situation.
MARYLAND:
How has it come to pass that Maryland _lacks_ more good wild-life laws
than any other state in the Union except North Carolina? Of the really
fundamental protective laws, embracing the list that to every
self-respecting state seems indispensable, Maryland has almost none save
certain bag-limit laws! Otherwise, the state is wide open! It is indeed
high time that she should abandon her present attitude of hostility to
wild life, and become a good neighbor. She should do what is _fair_ and
_right_ about the protection of the migratory game and bird life that
annually passes twice through her territory!
At the last session of the Maryland legislature, the law preventing the
use of power boats in wild-fowl shooting was repealed. That was a step
ten years backward; and Maryland should be ashamed of it!
The list of things that Maryland must do in order to clear her record is
a long one. Here it is:
Local regulations should be replaced by a uniform state law.
The sale of all native wild game should be stopped.
Spring and late winter shooting of game should be stopped.
All non-game birds not already included under the statutes should be
protected.
The exportation of all game should be prohibited, unless accompanied
by the man who shot it, bearing his license, and the law should be
state-wide instead of depending upon a separate enactment for each
county.
There should be a hunter's license law for all who hunt.
The use of machine shotguns in hunting should be stopped, at once.
Stop the use of power boats in wild-fowl shooting.
MASSACHUSETTS:
In 1912 the state of Massachusetts moved up into the foremost rank of
states, where for one year New York had stood alone. She passed a
counterpart of the New York law, absolutely prohibiting the sale of all
wild American game in Massachusetts, but providing for the sale of game
that has been reared in preserves and tagged by state officers. This
victory was achieved only after three months of hard fighting. The
coalition of sportsmen, zoologists and friends of wild life in general
proved irresistible, just as a similar union of forces accomplished the
Bayne law in New York in 1911. The victory is highly instructive, as
great victories usually are. It proves once more that whenever the
American people can be aroused from their normal apathy regarding wild
life, _any good conservation legislation can be enacted!_ The prime
necessities to success are good measures, good management, a reasonable
campaign fund, and tireless energy and persistence. Massachusetts is to
be roundly congratulated on having so thoroughly cleaned up her
sale-of-game situation.
Incidentally, five bills for the repeal of the Massachusetts law against
spring shooting were introduced, and each one went down to the defeat
that it deserved. _The repeal of a spring-shooting law, anywhere, is a
step backward ten years!_
Massachusetts needs a bag-limit law more in keeping with her small
remnant of wild life; and that she will have ere long. Very soon, also,
her sportsmen will raise the standard of ethics in shotgun shooting, by
barring out the automatic and pump shotguns so much beloved by the
market shooters. As matters stand at this date (1912) the Old Bay State
needs the following new laws:
Low bag limits on all game.
Five-year close seasons on all shore birds, snipe and woodcock.
Expulsion of the automatic and pump shotguns, in hunting.
MICHIGAN:
On the whole, the game laws of Michigan are in excellent shape, and
leave little to be desired in the line of betterment except to be
simplified. All the game protected by the laws of the state is debarred
from sale; squirrels, pinnated grouse, doves and wild turkeys enjoy long
close seasons; the bag limits on deer and game birds are reasonably low;
spring shooting still is possible on nine species of ducks; and this
should be stopped without delay.
Only three or four suggestions are in order:
All spring shooting should be prohibited.
All shore birds should have a five-year close season.
The use of the machine shotguns in hunting should be stopped.
The laws should permit the sale, under tag, of all species of game
that can successfully be reared in preserves on a commercial basis.
Two or three state game preserves, for deer, each at least four
miles square, should be established without delay.
MINNESOTA:
This state should at once enact a bag-limit law that will do some
good, instead of the statutory farce now on the books. Make it
fifteen birds per day of waterfowl, all species combined, and no
grouse or quail.
There should be five-year close seasons enacted for quail, grouse,
plover, woodcock, snipe, and all other shore birds.
A law should be enacted prohibiting the use of firearms by
unnaturalized aliens, and a $20 license for all naturalized aliens.
Provision should be made for a large state game refuge in southern
Minnesota.
The state should prohibit the use of machine guns in hunting.
To-day, direct and reliable advices show that the game situation in
Minnesota is far from encouraging. Several species are threatened with
extinction at an early date. In northern Minnesota it is reported that
much game is surreptitiously trapped and slaughtered. The bob white is
reported as threatened with total extinction at an early date; but I
think the prairie chicken will be the first bird species to go. Moose
will soon be extinct everywhere in Minnesota except in the game
preserves. Apparently there is now about one duck in Minnesota for every
ten ducks that were there only ten years ago.
Now, what is Minnesota going to do about all this? Is she willing
through Apathy to become a gameless state? Her people need to arouse
themselves _now_, and pass several _strong_ laws. Her bag limit of
forty-five birds _per day_ of quail, grouse, woodcock and plover, and
_fifty_ per day of the waterbirds, is a joke, and nothing more; but it
is no laughing matter. It spells extermination.
MISSISSIPPI:
The legalized slaughter of robins, cedar birds, grosbeaks and doves
should cease immediately, on the basis of economy of resources and a
square deal to all the states lying northward of Mississippi.
The shooting of all water-fowl should cease on January 1.
A reasonable limit should be established on deer.
A hunting license law should be passed at once, fixing the fee at $1
and devoting the revenue to the pay of a corps of non-political game
wardens, selected on a basis of ability and fitness.
The administration of the game laws should be placed in charge of a
salaried game commissioner.
It is seriously to the discredit of Mississippi that her laws actually
classify robins, cedar-birds, grosbeaks and doves as "game," and _make
them killable as such from Sept. 1 to March 1!_ I should think that if
no economic consideration carried weight in Mississippi, state pride
alone would be sufficient to promote a correction of the evil. If we of
the North were to slaughter mockingbirds for food, when they come North
to visit us, the men of the South would call us greedy barbarians; and
they would be quite right.
MISSOURI:
The Missouri bag limits that permit the killing or possession of
fifty birds per day are absurd, and fatally liberal. The utmost
should be twenty-five; and even that is too high.
Doves should be taken off the list of game birds, and protected
throughout the year; and so should all tree squirrels.
Spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl should be prohibited
without delay.
A law against automatic and pump guns should be enacted at the next
legislative session, as a public lesson on the raising of the
standard of ethics in shooting.
The state of Missouri is really strong in her position as a
game-protecting state. She perpetually protects such vanishing species
as the ruffed grouse, prairie chicken (pinnated grouse), woodcock, and
all her shore birds save snipe and plover. She prohibits the sale of
native game and the killing of female deer; but she wisely permits the
sale of preserve-bred elk and deer under the tags of the State Game
Commission. For nearly all the wild game that is accessible, her markets
are tightly closed.
We heartily congratulate Missouri on her advanced position on the sale
of game, and we hope that the people of Iowa will even yet profit by her
good example.
MONTANA:
Like Colorado and Wyoming, Montana is wasting a valuable heritage of
wild game while she struggles to maintain the theory that she still is
in the list of states that furnish big-game hunting. It is a fact that
ten years ago most sportsmen began to regard Montana as a has-been for
big game, and began to seek better hunting-grounds elsewhere. British
Columbia, Alberta and Alaska have done much for the game of Montana by
drawing sportsmen away from it. Mr. Henry Avare, the State Game Warden,
is optimistic regarding even the big game, and believes that it is
holding its own. This is partially true of white-tailed deer, or it was
up to the time of great slaughter. It is said that in 1911, 11,000 deer
were killed in Montana, all in the western part of the state, seventy
per cent of which were white-tails. The deep snows and extreme cold of a
long and unusually severe winter drove the hungry deer down out of the
mountains into the settlements, where the ranchmen joyously slaughtered
them. The destruction around Kalispell was described by Harry P.
Stanford as "sickening."
Mr. Avare estimates the prong-horned antelope in Montana at three
thousand head, of which about six hundred are under the quasi-protection
of four ranches.
The antelope need three or four small ranges, such as the Snow Creek
Antelope Range, where the bad lands are too rough for ranchmen, but
quite right for antelopes and other big game.
All the grouse and ptarmigan of Montana need a five-year close
season. The splendid sage grouse is now extinct in many parts of its
previous range. Fifty-eight thousand licensed gunners are too many
for them!
The few mountain sheep and mountain goats that survive should have a
five-year close season, at once.
The killing of female hoofed animals should be prohibited by law.
Montana has not yet adopted the model law for the protection of
non-game birds. Only seven states have failed in that respect.
The use of automatic and pump shotguns, and silencers, should
immediately be prohibited.
Montana's bag-limits are not wholly bad; but the grizzly bear has almost
been exterminated, save in the Yellowstone Park. Some of these days, if
things go on as they are now going, the people of Montana will be rudely
awakened to the fact that they have 50,000 licensed hunters but no
longer any killable game! And then we will hear enthusiastic talk about
"restocking."
NEBRASKA:
No other state has bestowed close seasons upon as many extinct species
of game as Nebraska. Behold how she has resolutely locked the doors of
her empty cage after all these species have flown: Elk, antelope, wild
turkey, passenger pigeon, whooping crane, sage grouse, ptarmigan and
curlew. In a short time the pinnated grouse can be added to the list of
has-beens.
There is little to say regarding the future of the game of Nebraska; for
its "future" is now history.
Provision should be made for one or more state game preserves.
Spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl should be prohibited.
A larger and more effective warden service should be provided.
Doves should be removed from the game list.
NEVADA:
The sage grouse should be given a ten-year close season, for
recuperation.
All non-game birds should have perpetual protection.
The cranes, now verging on extinction, and the pigeons and doves
should at once be taken out of the list of game birds, and forever
protected.
All the shore birds need five years of close protection.
A State Game Warden whose term of office is not less than four years
should be provided for.
A corps of salaried game protectors should be chosen for active and
aggressive game protection.
Nevada's bag limits are among the best of any state, the only
serious flaw being "10 sage grouse" per day: which should be 0!
Nevada still has a few antelope; and _we beg her to protect them all
from being hunted or killed!_ It is my belief that if the antelope is
really saved anywhere in the United States outside of national parks and
preserves, it will be in the wild and remote regions of Nevada, where it
is to be hoped that lumpy-jaw has not yet taken hold of the herds.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Speaking generally, the New Hampshire laws regulating the killing and
shipment of game are defective for the reason that on birds, and in fact
all game save deer, there appear to be no "bag" limits on the quantity
that may be killed in a day or a season. The following bag limits are
greatly needed, forthwith:
Gray Squirrel, none per day, or per year; duck (except wood-duck),
ten per day, or thirty per season; ruffed grouse, four per day,
twelve per season; hare and rabbit, four per day, or twelve per
season.
Five-year close seasons should immediately be enacted for the
following species: quail, woodcock, jacksnipe and all species of
shore or "beach" birds.
The sale of all native wild game should be prohibited; and
game-breeding in preserves, and the sale of such game under state
supervision, should be provided for.
The use of automatic and pump guns in hunting should be
barred,--through state pride, if for no other reason.
NEW JERSEY:
New Jersey enjoys the distinction of being the second state to break
the strangle-hold of the gun-makers of Hartford and Ilion, and cast out
the odious automatic and pump guns. It was a pitched battle,--that of
1912, inaugurated by Ernest Napier, President of the State Game and Fish
Commission and his fellow commissioners. The longer the contest
continued, the more did the press and the people of New Jersey awaken to
the seriousness of the situation. Finally, the gun-suppression bill
passed the two houses of the legislature with a total of only fourteen
votes against it, and after a full hearing had been granted the
attorneys of the gunmakers, was promptly signed by Governor Woodrow
Wilson. _Governor Wilson could not be convinced that the act was
"unconstitutional," or "confiscatory" or "class legislation."_
This contest aroused the whole state to the imperative necessity of
providing more thorough protection for the remnant of New Jersey game,
and it was chiefly responsible for the enactment of four other excellent
new protective laws.
New Jersey always has been sincere in her desire to protect her wild
life, and always has gone _as far as the killers of game would permit
her to go!_ But the People have made one great mistake,--common to
nearly every state,--of permitting the game-killers to dictate the game
laws! _Always and everywhere, this is a grievous mistake_, and fatal to
the game. For example: In 1866 New Jersey enacted a five-year
close-season law on the "prairie fowl" (pinnated grouse); but it was too
late to save it. Now that species is as dead to New Jersey as is the
mastodon. The moral is: Will the People apply this lesson to the ruffed
grouse, quail and the shore birds generally before they, too, are too
far gone to be brought back? If it is done, it must be done _against the
will of the gunners;_ for they prefer to shoot,--and shoot they will if
they can dictate the laws, until the last game bird is dead.
In 1912, New Jersey is spending $30,000 in trying to restock her
birdless covers with foreign game birds and quail. In brief, here are
the imperative duties of New Jersey:
Provide eight-year close seasons for quail, ruffed grouse, woodcock,
snipe, all shore birds and the wood-duck.
Prohibit the sale of all native wild game; but promote the sale of
preserve-bred game.
Prevent the repeal of the automatic gun law, which surely will be
attempted, each year.
Prohibit all bird-shooting after January 10, each year, until fall.
Prohibit the killing of squirrels as "game."
NEW MEXICO:
All things considered, the game laws of New Mexico are surprisingly up
to date, and the state is to be congratulated on its advanced position.
For example, there are long close seasons on antelope, elk (now
extinct!), mountain sheep, bob white quail, pinnated grouse, wild pigeon
and ptarmigan,--an admirable list, truly. It is clear that New Mexico is
wide awake to the dangers of the wild-life situation. On two counts, her
laws are not quite perfect. There is no law prohibiting spring shooting,
and there is no "model law" protecting the non-game birds. The sale of
game will not trouble New Mexico, because the present laws prevent the
sale of all protected game except plover, curlew and snipe,--all of them
species by no means common in the arid regions of the Southwest.
A law prohibiting spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl
should be passed at the next session of the legislature.
The enactment of the "model law" should be accomplished without
delay to put New Mexico abreast of the neighboring states of
Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
The term of the State Warden should be extended to four years.
NEW YORK:
In the year of grace, 1912, I think we may justly regard New York as the
banner state of all America in the protection of game and wild life in
general. This proud position has been achieved partly through the
influence of a great conservation Governor, John A. Dix, and the State
Conservation Commission proposed and created by his efforts. In these
days of game destruction, when our country from Nome to Key West is
reeking with the blood of slaughtered wild creatures, it is a privilege
and a pleasure to be a citizen of a state which has thoroughly cleaned
house, and done well nigh the utmost that any state can do to clear her
bad record, and give all her wild creatures a fair chance to survive.
The people of the Empire State literally can point with pride to the
list of things accomplished in the discharge of good-citizenship toward
the remnant of wild life, and toward the future generations of New
Yorkers. That we of to-day have borne our share of the burden of
bringing about the conditions of 1912, will be a source of satisfaction,
especially when the sword and shield hang useless upon the walls of Old
Age.
New York began to protect her deer in 1705 and her heath hens in 1708.
In 1912 she stopped the killing of female deer, and of bucks having
horns less than three inches in length. Spring shooting was stopped in
1903. A comprehensive law protecting non-game birds was enacted in 1862.
New York's first law against the sale of certain game during close
seasons was enacted in 1837.
In 1911 New York enacted, with only one adverse vote, a law prohibiting
the sale of all native wild game throughout the state, no matter where
killed, and providing liberally for the encouragement of game-breeding,
and the sale of preserve-bred game.
In 1912 a new codification of the state game laws went into effect,
through the initiative of Governor Dix and Conservation Commissioners
Van Kennen, Moore and Fleming, assisted (as special counsel) by Marshall
McLean, George A. Lawyer and John B. Burnham. This code contains many
important new provisions, one of the most valuable of which is a clause
giving the Conservation Commission power, at its discretion, to shorten
or to close any open season on any species of game in any locality
wherein that species seems to be threatened with extermination. This
very valuable principle should be enacted into law in every state!
In 1910, William Dutcher and T. Gilbert Pearson and the National
Association of Audubon Societies won, after a struggle lasting five
years, the passage of the "Shea plumage bill," prohibiting the sale of
aigrettes or other plumage of wild birds belonging to the same families
as the birds of New York (Chap. 256). This law _should be duplicated in
every state._
_Two things_ remain to be done in the state of New York.
All the shore birds, quail and gray squirrels of the state should be
given five-year close seasons, by the action of the State
Conservation Commission.
For the good name of the state, and the ethical standing of its
sportsmen, as an example to other states, and the last remaining
duty toward our wild life, the odious automatic and pump shotguns
should be barred from use in hunting, unless their capacity is
reduced to two shots without reloading.
* * * * *