GAME MANAGEMENT CONFERENCES 
 
further improved. It would seem logical, for example, to attempt 
by means of salting to draw game to areas not now used, where 
winter range is available. It may also be possible to combat disease 
with medicated salt, since our studies have shown that salt is used 
even mixed with sulphur, tobacco, bone meal, or with sheep dip. 
In short, planned salting of the Selway elk and deer herds has 
already aided materially in reserving range for winter use. It is my 
belief that through careful investigation the usefulness of salt as a 
game management tool can be greatly enhanced. 
The Use of Controlled Hunting in the Selway 
in 1937 
By 
JESS ROBERTSON 
State Game Department 
and 
A. B. HATCH 
School of Forestry, University of Idaho 
M R. Parsell and Mr. Case have shown that inadequate winter 
range is the most important problem in the Selway. Three 
conditions exist: (1) the winter ranges of the less accessible 
areas are heavily overused; (2) those near roads which are utilized 
by elk that migrate long distances from inaccessible areas are like- 
wise heavily overused; and (3) the winter ranges which support 
only those elk from areas which are heavily hunted (because of 
accessibility by roads) are now not used to capacity. Examples of 
these three conditions are, respectively, Moose Creek, the Dead- 
man drainage of the Lochsa, and the lower Selway River. It is 
evident that to reduce the number of animals on the overused 
ranges, hunting should be increased. Similarly, to increase the 
game on the understocked winter ranges (lower Selway) hunt- 
ing should be decreased. It happens that these overstocked and 
understocked areas lie in close proximity to one another. It follows 
that hunting should be so planned as to cause migration from the 
overstocked area to the understocked and thus avoid the necessity 
for an excessively large kill. 
In 1937 the special hunt in the old Selway game preserve had 
as its objects both the reduction in number of animals on the 
overcrowded Moose Creek ranges and the scattering of these 
herds to surrounding areas where winter range is not yet com- 
pletely utilized. Furthermore, the closure of the understocked, 
heavily hunted lower part of the Selway River drainage, pro- 
viding thereby a temporary sanctuary into which elk from the 
overstocked Lochsa might drift during the hunting season.