History of Wildlife Management

The Beginning

Prior to the turn of the twentieth century, there were few laws or regulations imposed on hunting wild animals in this country. All species could be harvested at any time of the year. During this time a market for wild game developed and many hunters harvested hundreds and even thousands of animals to sell. Animals were harvested for meat, hides, furs, feathers, decoration, and trading. Eventually laws were passed that protected animals from market hunting, yet more problems still existed. The rapid expansion of settlements throughout the country were beginning to change and limit the kinds and amounts of habitat available for species of wildlife. They plowed parries, mined mountains, drained wetlands, damned rivers, and built towns. All these activities, along with unregulated hunting had begun to take its toll on many wildlife species. Predators like wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, foxes, and weasels were shot on site because perceived as a threat to domestic chickens, sheep, and cattle, as well as game animals. By the late 1800's many areas were seeing rapid decline in the numbers of big game such as bison, elk, and white tailed deer. Concern over these extirpations led to the enactment of laws to protect game by limiting hunting and eliminated predators. State game wardens were given the task of enforcing these laws. After wild populations continued to suffer, managers tried to supplement them with animals raised in captivity, which failed to work. After a great deal of research by biologists, they found that habitat was one of the most crucial factors in wildlife survival. Efforts then began to increase to obtain and enhance habitat and extirpated species were reintroduced. Biologists now try to manage from a broader perspective, taking into account all the plants and animals that live in a area, rather than concentrating on a single species. The goal now is to enhance the entire ecological system (Iowa DNR, 2006)

Figure 3. Deer Hunters' Camp 1904 (Wisconsin Historical Society, 2006)

Political History

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy established in 1885 was one of the first efforts to manage wildlife in the United States. The main purpose of this division was to study bird populations, their migrations, and the crop damage they caused. Later it was expanded to deal with the relationship of all wildlife and agriculture and was placed in the Bureau of Biological Survey in 1896. In 1940, President F. D. Roosevelt created the Bureau of Wildlife, which combined the Bureau of Biological Survey (birds and mammals) with the Bureau of Fisheries (fish). The name of the bureau has undergone several changes and today is known as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. In the early 1990s the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt created a organization that would combine all the research conducted by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior into a single organization called the National Biological Survey. His reason was "the purpose of science is not to conquer the land, but to understand the mechanisms of ecosystems and to fit man into the resources he has available on the planet on which he has evolved." This was one of the first times that humans were out into the ecosystem and became part of the wildlife management equation. The human aspect is important because wildlife management involves public education, law enforcement, park administration, and many other human related issues. The effective management of wildlife requires a combination of biological and social strategies (Krausman, 2002).

Figure 4. President F. D. Roosevelt (About, Inc., 2006)

Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold was born on January 11th, 1887 in Burlington, Iowa. A member of a wealthy family, Aldo grew up living in a mansion overlooking the Mississippi River. The Mississippi is a migratory pathway for a quarter or the ducks and geese on the continent and served as a playground for the young boy. He and his father would explore the marshland haunting geese and ducks, and tracking animals. As a boy Leopold became a skilled woodsman and tracker. He also developed a sense of game sportsmanship from his father, that became a lifelong practice and influenced his career. Leopold was always a good student and graduated from Yale University with Masters of Forestry degree in June 1909. Soon after he joined the newly formed United Sates Forest Service and by 1912 had become the supervisor of the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico. In 1915 Leopold was assigned game and fish work in the service's southwest district, which inspired him to prepare a "Game and Fish Handbook", which defined the duties of forest officials and encouraged the region to organize game protection groups and promote strict enforcement of game laws, create game refuges, and restock depleted lands and waters. Leopold had also been suggesting for some time that the forest service set aside roadless areas as wilderness and in 1924 the Forest services accepted his idea and designated the Gila region in New Mexico as a wilderness area, 40 years before the Wilderness Act. For a short period Leopold worked for the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, but craved for a job in wildlife and conservation. He soon left his job at the Forest Products Laboratory and with funding from the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, began conducting wildlife surveys of the north central states. The survey and related work included a publication of a game management book, which established Leopold as one of the country's leading authorities on native game animals. The University of Wisconsin that it gave him a position teaching game management in 1933. There he became a dedicated and popular teacher. On April 24th, 1948, Aldo Leopold died of a heart attack, while fighting a brush fire that was threatening his Wisconsin farm. A week earlier, the Oxford press had called him to tell him that they had accepted a book which he had been seeking to publish. Throughout his life Leopold had kept a journal of his lifetime of work in the field. The book was a compilation of pieces relating to a lifetime of observations and reflections on the interrelations of ecology and ethics. Today Leopold is considered the father of professional wildlife management in America (Wisconsin DNR, 2006).

Figure 5. Aldo Leopold (Wisconsin DNR, 2006)