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

Fauna of the National Parks of the United States SURVEY OF PRESENT STATUS OF VERTEBRATE LIFE Though this step is a more satisfactory one to undertake than the first two in that it is clean-cut with all materials at hand, it is also the most exacting as to thoroughness of the results required. First a complete study skin collection for the area should be made and housed in the park museum. Large series of skins are not necessary, but each species should be represented in all seasonal and developmental phases. The life history of each species should be worked out for that area. It is not sufficient to have reference to the behavior of a closely related form or even the same form in another distant locality. Needless to say, the life-history studies would not approach completion for many years, even though systematic studies were instituted immediately. In this basic vertebrate survey a highly important phase is the study of the park animals, in a new environment with man as a potent ecological factor. Man in the park must be considered as part of the whole that is the park. Thus, the effects of his presence on the wild life must be carefully analyzed and dealt with as continuing problems in whatever administrative plan is finally adopted. DEVELOPMENT OF A MANAGEMENT PLAN Not until the three foregoing steps have been substantially worked out for a given area will it be possible to set up a management plan that can be characterized by any other name than make-shift. The task may be considered burdensome, yet without a program of wild life administration based on a painstaking survey containing all these elements the wild life will deteriorate further and further. The foregoing discussion explains the wherefore of the several steps in procedure developed in the course of the preliminary wild life survey and which were followed out as far as possible considering the broad field and the time allowed. This plan is here presented in outline form, indicating the methods for securing the data required in the first steps and suggesting how the last step, the administrative plan, can be predicated on this data. NEXT> RECAPITULATION and OUTLINE OF FAUNAL-SURVEY'S PROCEDURE

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