| OCR Text |
Show The CMR Planning Team should emphasize environmental education in conducting their program. Recreational uses should be confined to those which are compatible and sensitive to the purposes and goals of a wildlife refuge. No game range boundary fencing program should be undertaken, as the wildlife range is an intimate part of the neighboring land. We strongly oppose the concepts of predator control, as the prey/preda.tor relationship is a fundamental law of nature and for man to attempt to control it is presumptuous and will, no doubt, be disastrous. The proposed control of "varmits, predators, weeds and insects" via chemical poisons is a dangerous and fruitless practice. Minimum roading of the area. Maximum direction toward improving or preserving habitat for wildlife through appropriate restraints such as conservative grazing by domestic livestock. A range survey of the carrying capacity and condition and trend studies of this area should be completed before any range programs are implemented. (At the BLM meeting the state director noted that 60,000 AUMs of forage were permitted on the Russell Range. This appears to be very heavy use for the kind of range available.) Installation of fences and stock ponds should be kept to the minimum and then for the direct benefit of wildlife itself. Use of herbicides to control sagebrush, etc. should not be permitted. The transfer of the CMR from the BLM to the Fish and Wildlife Service has strong public support. The primary reason is that the public believes the Fish and Wildlife Service will make preservation of wildlife on the Russell Range its top priority. The long-range goals and objectives of the wildlife range management include and to maintain as nearly as possible significant domestic livestock grazing numbers, as this was the intent of the original executive order setting up the Game Range. Livestock grazing is important to the proper utilization of the range, at the same time grazing carrying capacities for various species of wildlife should be arrived at based on an inventory of the soil, water, and range resources and the potential for developing those resources. Stock and wildlife water developments, proper fencing and grazing systems, should help to improve the wildlife range. The Russell Game Range should be used as a demonstration area, to show that domestic livestock and wildlife management are compatible and complimentary, provided the determined carrying capacities are properly managed and not exceeded Because the Russell Game Range is relatively long and narrow, and because wildlife know no boundaries, there is bound to be a great impact of wildlife on adjacent private lands as well as on intermingled private lands within the game range. These contributions by the private sector should be recognized •3- |
