Fauna Series No. 1 Cover Contents Foreword Approach Methods Analysis Conspectus Suggested Policy

Fauna of the National Parks of the United States HISTORY OF FAUNA UNDER MAN'S INFLUENCE This second step of a wild-life survey might be likened to making a moving picture as compared to the first step just discussed, which is more like assembling the elements of a still picture. The primitive picture melted into a rapidly changing scene when people came in numbers. The historical study will discover the new influences at work on the fauna and some of the results. This study has two parts. Tracing the story since the date of the creation of the park is relatively much the easier part. Superintendents' reports provide a continuous record. Animals and birds of a park are under constant observation by members of the administrative staff. Scientists have used parks for research laboratories and published their findings. Such complete studies as Animal Life in the Yosemite5 and Vertebrate Natural History of the Lassen Peak Region 6 are of invaluable assistance here. The more difficult part of the historical study is to trace the factors affecting the fauna of the area backwards from the time it was made a park to the days of its discovery and exploration. Yet this is likely to be the most important period, for the influences most inimical to wild life held their greatest sway then. The history and effects of these early influences must be sought out if the present status of the vertebrates is to be really understood. The several major occupations of man in wresting a living from the new land have each left an imprint on the fauna. Where the activity was trapping and hunting, especially market hunting, the effect was soon apparent. Other pursuits, such as cattle raising and farming, had influences which were not always so conspicuous, but the ultimate harm done may have been even greater. The impoverishment of the range by domestic stock has had an almost incalculable effect upon the native life. It was most obvious on the game, but, of course, the predators were involved in turn, and so on. As is always the case with Nature's ecologic structure, the disturbance of one species has repercussions the end of which we are as yet unable to see or predict. It would be hard to find any form of wild life that was not in some way affected by stock on the range. Agriculture caused many changes. Irrigation destroyed certain animal-plant communities, replacing them with others. Ranches preempted valley bottoms which were critical areas for the game populations of entire mountain areas in severe winters, thus threatening their complete annihilation. Cultivated crops favored the enormous increase of certain rodents over the normal numbers for wild land. Accidentally and intentionally, the farmers introduced exotics. Railroads and logging operations likewise had their share in the changes that took place. Game ranges were divided. The fire element was magnified. Forest cover was removed bodily. FIGURE 7. – Ranches preempted valley bottoms which were critical areas for game in winter. Photograph taken June 26, 1931, in Beaver Park, Rocky Mountain. Wild Life Survey No. 1845 In studying the history of the areas in relation to the effect upon wild life, it is helpful to group the influences by the different phases of human activity which caused them. In doing this, faunal fluctuations not traceable to civilization must not be overlooked. Methods for this second step of the survey are much the same as would be invoked for the first step, and so do not need to be discussed separately here. But the difficulties are less in proportion that there is much more material to draw upon. FIGURE 8. – Near many parks, forest cover is being removed bodily and the fauna must change in consequence. Photograph taken September 17, 1931, at White River entrance of Mount Rainier. Wild Life Survey No. 1847. 5 Animal Life in the Yosemite, by Grinnell, Joseph, and Storer, Tracy I. University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1924. 6 Vertebrate Natural History of a Section of Northern California Through the Lassen Peak Region, by Grinnell, Joseph, Dixon, Joseph, and Linsdale, Jean M. University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1930, pp. 85-86. NEXT> SURVEY OF PRESENT STATUS OF VERTEBRATE LIFE and DEVELOPMENT OF A MANAGEMENT PLAN

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