land could move to some really good 
land in some compact community, 
where road and school service would 
be less expensive. It would be actual 
economy for the public to offer them 
a good improved farm in exchange 
for the one evacuated. The AAA 
now offers the machinery for accom- 
plishing just such evacuation and re- 
settlement, if the farmers wish to use 
it. The CCC and FERA camps offer 
the labor necessary    to  dam   the 
ditches, reflood the marsh, and install 
the food patches, plantings, and other 
improvements needed to check fire 
and restore wildlife on the evacuated 
lands. The Biological Survey offers 
to buy out the odd parcels of unoc- 
cupied holdings, but all federal par- 
ticipation is contingent on the State 
Conservation Department agreeing, 
once the area is completed, to oper- 
ate it at its own expense. This will 
call for a tri-lateral "treaty" whereby 
the federal government and county 
pool their holdings, for administration 
by the state, as a great public "Con- 
servation District." 
   Overtures looking to the consum- 
mation of this great reorganization of 
land-use on 100,000 acres of marsh 
are now under way. The federal 
governmenf and the Conservation 
Department are already committed. It 
remains to be seen whether the coun- 
ties and the farmers are willing to 
perform their respective parts, and 
under what terms. It is a less ex- 
pensive, less paternalistic, and more 
flexible plan for creating public game 
 
 
areas man the out-ana-out teaerai 
purchase employed in such projects as 
the Upper Mississippi Refuge. But being a cooperative 
enterprise, it also requires the participation of many 
diverse groups, and this may not be forthcoming unless 
local conservation groups interest themselves in the en- 
terprise. 
  Many details are still obscure, even in the minds of 
those in charge. It may, for example, be unnecessary to 
evacuate all going farms; some scattered farms may be 
needed to put in food patches, patrol the area, etc. Again, 
if the state assumes all the operating expense, it may 
have to seek some income from wildlife crops, especially 
fur crops, not so much to recoup itself as to give the 
county some income for the use of county lands. Will 
the public be willing to pay some nominal fee for the 
use of a public area? If not, there can hardly be any 
expansion of the idea in the shape of additional districts. 
  The local people will of course benefit, not only from 
the direct revenues from wildlife crops, but from the 
tourist trade which the existence of such crops will cre- 
ate. The precarious national situation in waterfowl will 
make it inadvisable to allow any duck shooting for a 
long time to come, but the upland game and fur ought to 
return a legitimate harvest soon after actual management 
begins. 
                Management Questions 
   It sounds simple to reflood a marsh and let the wild- 
life take it, but it isn't. Here are some of the unan- 
swered questions: 
   How shall the dam-building job be divided between 
the engineers and the beavers? Obviously where there 
 
 
Counhes 
  6 Scale iesifl 
 
 
Map Showing Central Wisconsin Game Area 
are no aspens the engineers must do it, also on all lower 
reaches where gates are needed to regulate the level of 
the impounded water. Can all aspen-lined headwater 
ditches be left to the beavers? 
  Will cattails tend to choke the pondage above each dam 
and spoil it for duck-nesting? If so, are muskrats a 
remedy? If so, what precautions are needed to prevent 
these muskrats from puncturing the dams? 
  With higher water-levels, will grass again get a foot- 
hold on the burned area now lost to aspen? Could snow- 
shoe rabbits be reintroduced to thin the aspen thickets? 
  What about hay meadows? Isn't a partly-hayed coun- 
try more favorable to prairie chickens than one entirely 
uncut? 
  Do the deer need tamaracks for winter cover? If so, 
can such wintering thickets be artifically planted? 
  What grain can be used for food patches in "frost- 
holes" where buckwheat is liable to summer killing? 
  White birch is necessary for winter budding of grouse, 
but in the heavily burned marshes is all gone. Will it 
grow in burned peat or sand, even if planted? 
  What can be done to build up the remnant of breed- 
ing sandhill cranes? No one knows what they eat, or 
what is the weak spot in their present environment. 
   Certain grasses, notably "rip-gut," are now known 
to form ideal chicken roosts. Where such roosts are lack- 
ing, how can the vegetation be manipulated to build up 
this particular grass for chicken-roost purposes? 
  With higher water levels, will the acidity of the soil 
again increase? What changes in vegetation and animal 
life will this induce?