10 
 
 
THE MAINE FORESTER 
 
 
   When through too much protecting, any species of game tends to multiply
to 
a state of over abundance, it then follows that the available food supply
is almost 
totally destroyed. Starvation follows, resulting in malformation, diseases
and 
high mortality in the dependent animals. The carrying capacity of the land
is 
lowered which results in a general public loss through no hunting privileges
and 
the pleasure derived from seeing and studying these animals in their natural

environments. 
   Any game management practices advocated for the forested areas of the

State should not therefore call for an excessive expenditure of funds or
man power; 
but should tend to take advantage of natural conditions and possibilities
that are 
already existent. No game problem should be inaugurated that will work counter

to good silvicultural practices, and neither should a forest program be contrary

to the best interests of the game or wildlife it maintains. It is entirely
possible 
and necessary that these two practices be correlated, even though it demands
a 
setup of give and take on the part of the forester and the wildlife manager.

   Wildlife is dependent on the forests for such of their food, nesting sites,
and 
cover protection against weather and predators. Forests can not exist long
with- 
out its complement of animal life and most assuredly the animal life could
not 
exist without the forests. 
   In order to make the fullest use of the forest land it is imperative that
an 
optimum quota of game, as well as timber be annually produced on them. To
do 
this then, requires that the environment be entirely adequate to supply the
neces- 
sary life giving sustenance and to afford the necessary cover protection
to the 
game. 
   The amount of game that can be maintained on any given area depends prima-

rily upon the food supply and the cover. The food supply in mid-winter is
of great 
importance because at this time, when the 'soil is covered with snow, the
animals 
and birds have to depend upon the berries, buds and such other food as can
be 
found above the snow line. A highland forest in which there is an abundance
of 
food in summer, in winter often supports only a meager population of deer
because 
of lack of cedar and tamarack swamps in which the animals find shelter and
food 
during the winter. The game must have browse which is not confined merely
to 
trees but more often to shrubs and other lower vegetation. A dense forest
of 
mature timber with a scant undergrowth of shrubs or young forest trees may
be 
a very good forest but a very poor feeding ground for game. 
   The New York grouse investigations made a survey of two five hundred acre

areas one having a solid coniferous plantation of fourteen year old trees,
and the 
other one, a natural or varied age class and species cover, ranging from
open land 
to old woods. A survey of these two areas showed that of the grouse found
on the 
two areas, ninety-five per cent were found on the natural cover area. In
the natural 
cover area was found a diversity of foods and cover conditions favoring the
pro- 
duction of these birds, while the solid stands of conifers with their closed
canopies 
offer little in the way of ground cover which supplies food suitable to these
birds. 
   Game food plants are little found in and under dense growth of even age
stands 
of conifers and any attempts on the part of the forester to grow large tracts
of 
such even aged trees will be doing a very disastrous thing as far as game
species 
of that forest are concerned. If a planting program is proposed it should
be so 
planned that no large solid tracts of planting be done at one planting in
a solid 
block. The units should be broken up into as small and scattered areas as
can be 
later harvested economically. 
   On lands where there is little planting done as is the case here in Maine,
the 
problem of the game manager is to get the timber interests to distribute
their 
cutting operations each year as uniformly as possible and in as small units
as it 
is economical to do so. In doing this, the areas of young hardwood growth
that 
follow such cutting practices so necessary to the game species will be distributed

in such a manner as to assure raising the carrying capacity of the land to
its 
maximum.