When the Emergency Conservation Work Program came into being,
the Forest Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of
Reclamation, the Division of Grazing, and the Bureau of Biological
Survey took the opportunity to treat a vast acreage that would have
been treated years ago had funds permitted. During the three fiscal
years 1934 to 1936 a total of almost 20,000,000 acres had been covered
by E.C.W. for the control of these various rodent pests. On the statute
books of several Western States rodent-control laws provide that
landowners may establish rodent-control districts wherein all lands
are treated simultaneously by paid crews working under the supervision
of the Biological Survey. Never before the E.C.W. program were there
adequate Federal funds to make these laws effective by taking proper
care of infested public lands adjacent to private holdings.
The most concrete proof of the necessity of rodent control is found
in the amount of money expended by private individuals throughout the
West for this purpose. The Federal Government, while owning as much
as 60 percent of the land in many of the Western States, contributes
only about 25 percent of the total cost of rodent-control operations.
During the fiscal year 1936, States, counties, and private individuals
expended $665,785 for the purpose, while the Biological Survey was able
to expend only $226,623 from regular appropriations. The E.C.W. program
afforded the first opportunity of somewhere near meeting the Federal
Government's obligations to the citizens of the West in the matter of
adequately controlling the rodent pests that breed and range on public
lands and from these strongholds infest and reinfest adjacent private
holdings.