--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Swapp, Benjamin collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 29 number: 7 published: 1926-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Swapp, Benjamin, “Wild Life of the Forest,” *Improvement Era* 29, no. 7 (May 1926): 634–637." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2907unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2907unse start_page: 634 end_page: 637 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1926-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2907unse publication_year: 1926 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1926, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Wild Life of the Forest WILD LIFE OF THE FOREST By Benjamin Swapp It is "a day of clouds and thick darkness." A forest fire is raging through the hills "like the morning spread upon the mountains. As a great people, set in battle array," the flames advance, and the appearance of them is as horses, and as horsemen, so do they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap; they run, like mighty men; they climb the wall like men of war; and they march every one on his way. They break not their ranks; neither dost one thrust another; they march every one on his path." <<* * * q Lqj-4 to thee will I cry, for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto thee, for a fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth; the land is as a garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." Thus doth Joel describe that scourge of all living things, the forest fire. Joel knew, as all woodsmen know, that fire is the enemy of the forest. This article attempts to set forth the manner in which fires affect game, fish and all other wild life, and to point out certain fundamental ideas which must underlie successful conservation, both of forest and of game. Severe fires sometime surround and destroy large game, or grown animals and birds and kill them outright; but the greatest damage occurs through the destruction of eggs and young, and the ruin of coverts, without which game falls an easy prey to vermin and hunters. Fire also causes important disturbances among the food plants on which the game isi dependent. Instances of outright destruction of game by fires are numerous and reveal some unanswered and puzzling questions as to the actual effect of fire and smoke upon the mind and behavior of animals. The following is> quoted from a report by W. T. Cox on the big fires of 1902 in Washington and Oregon: "In the dense smoke hundreds of grouse, quail and Mongolian pheasants were surrounded by fire and roasted to death. Hundreds more had their wings scorched, and now upon the blackened floor of the forest fall an easy prey to prowling vermin. Large and small mammals fared no better. Car- casses of deer, bear, cougars, and lynx have been found, and literally thousands of dead squirrels. Wolves and lynx are appearing in unusual numbers since the fires, evidently attracted by the numbers of ready-prepared roasts to be had in the forest." It is safe to say that the direct loss of mature game is heavy in WILD LIFE OF THE FOREST 635 Above: Deer grazing in an opening of the forest. Center: Feeding young deer. Bottom: A forest fire in action. 636 IMPROVEMENT ERA large fiercely burning fires, but for the country as a whole such loss is slight compared with the loss of eggs1 and young, which take place in every fire, even the so-called "light ground-fires." The salient point about the loss of young and eggs is that in most regions1 the fire season corresponds with the breeding season and accordingly must destroy all the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds on the burned area, as well as many of the fawns, which during that season are young and are left "cached out" while their mothers seek water and forage. Spring burning of stubble, brush patches, ditch banks, and waste corners of farms not only make a clean sweep of eggs and young of quail, but leave the old birds without cover at the exact time of season when livestock has usually grazed off all the corners of the unburned ground or else the farmer has plowed it up. Then comes the spring migration of hawks and the spring activities of house cats and vermin. The birds are either exposed and defenceless or else so crowded into some little island of cover that breeding is impossible. Sportsmen will not solve the problem of quail production until every farmer is persuaded or paid to leave cover, spring cover, on the waste corners of his farm; until spring burning and vermin are controlled in the interest of game, and until refuges are established and winter feed provided to insure the survival of seed stock. Universal appreciation of these truths would produce more quail than a universal year-long closed season throughout the United States. It is only too true that upon areas where fires have occurred that all browse and young plant life has been burned and killed; once the ground is laid bare erosion begins to make inroads upon the surface, the new plant life is inferior and in many cases useless to game. The browse which the fire destroys is of great importance, because it furnishes the winter feed. Forest conservation not only preserves the forest from fire but provides food and shelter for game animals and birds, preserves the ground cover which regulates the flow of streams, the pasturage of large numbers of domestic animals, and building materials for homes and industries. The practice of forestry on these lands likewise provide berries and game food. Berries come in when the sunlight reaches the soil, and the cutting of mature timber in any producing forest lets the sunlight in upon the soil at the end of each generation of trees. Thus berries and other sun-demanding food plants are a normal part of the producing forest, and are better distributed from the standpoint of game production when thev arise from cuttings than when they arise from regions swept by fire. This is why fires destroy game and wild life and why game conservationists must ally themselves with forest conservationists before either can accomplish much in the way of protecting our resources. This community of interest induced by the existence of a common enemy is, however, only part of the story. WILD LIFE OF THE FOREST 637 There are deeper and more significant reasons why forestry and game management must work together and learn from each other. The fundamental thing in both game and forestry is that we, the public, must grasp the idea of production. If conservation does not mean production, then it means nothing at all. I do not mean pro- duction alone, but production through use. The true meaning of conservation is to conserve or preserve from injury and to utilize the resources through regulated use, which pjrotects the resources against the onslaught of fires, the law breaker, the individual who would gladly cut the last tree, kill the only surviving wild goose or duck, shoot the last remaining deer, or crop the last spear of forage, and smile at the great devastated regions stretched out before him. The former needs our cooperative support, the latter our earnest attention. Kanab, Utah. My Mother When but a lad of two or three, When Mother held me on her knee, 'Twas then she chased away my fears, Bound up my wounds, and dried my tears. These mem'ries linger with me yet — So at this time, I'll not forget My Mother. Among) the things she did for me: She risked her life that I might be, And strove to teach me in the ways That I should walk in after days. Enough for me she could not do; That was the spirit, through and through. Of Mother. She taught me to avoid the strife And evil things that crowd man's life; She taught me to refrain from lies; Tobacco and strong drink despise. If I do this, then I will live A clean, pure life, and credit give My Mother. May her life's years, as on they speed, To happiness and pleasures lead. May I be found in virtues way, And make the best of life today. If I a useful life can live. I know that I will pleasure give My Mother. Provo, Utah. C. H. DURRANT.