- 6- 
 
Game on Pablic Domain.   One of the least-known assets of the approximately

162,1g,o00 acres of the unallotted and unappropriated public lands is the
wild- 
life which exists or might exist upon it. Happily an able and up-to-date
analy- 
sis of the condition of the western range, including the m-olic domain and
its 
wildlife, is now available (11). 
The public domain is in *orse condition than any other part of the western

range (namely 67 per cent depleted, 95 per cent still depreciating, 2 per
cent 
improving). It is suggested that other forms of use than livestock grazing

must be found for much of it. Some of the most interesting and valuable of

species of wildlife are found, in part, on the pulic domain. These include

antelope, desert male deer, peccary, various forms of bighorn sheep, Gambel
qua4 
sage hen, Mearns quail, scaled quail, mountain lion, coyote, ringtailed cat,

badger, and desert fox, also such interesting reptiles as chuckwalla and
Gila 
monster. 
Thy not apply the "simple naturalistic method" of leaving most
of this land 
to game, recreational, wilderness, and watershed use?  Not" the follwing

authoritative statement: "Before white settlement, the range was   
 only by 
game, the great numbers of which are attested by the reports of all the early

explorers. Despite these numbers and climatic cycles, and drought periods
whidh 
were undoubtedly as severe as any of recent years, the range did maintain
it- 
self, except for natural variation and for localized and temporary overgrazing,

and would have continued to do so if the white man had not upset its natural

and fairly stable equilibrium. Truly, man has shown less wisdom and vision
in 
the use -of the range resource than did uncontrolled nature. His greatest
achieve- 
ment seems to have been the removal of the natural checks and balances which
had 
maintained the virgin range over thousands of years." (The Western Range,
1936, 
p. 
It seems to the committee that to save something from the wreck of this vast

area, there must be a swift and effective reduction of livestock to a point
where