File:Bulletin (Pennsylvania Game Commision), no. 10 (1911) (20312657380).jpg

Title: Bulletin (Pennsylvania Game Commision), no. 10
Identifier: bulletinpennsylv10penn (find matches)
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Pennsylvania Game Commission
Subjects: Game protection; Birds
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa. : Pennsylvania Game commission
Contributing Library: Penn State University
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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M rh«togrii;»h hj DppnrtnH-nt of Fnrests and Watt-rH. Fig. 2. I'KXXSVIAAXIA WOODT.AXDS The verdant home ol tliousaiul.s oi valuable game birds and animals. GAME ADMINISTRATION IN PENNSYLVANIA By Francis H. Coffin Member of Board of Game Commissioners of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania When William Penn founded his colony, the twenty nine mil- lion acres comprising what is now the Keystone State were almost entirely covered by a dense forest. Only a few natural meadows and occasional bare mountain tops were free from a magnificent stand of valuable timber. Approximately 125 species of trees were native to the Commonwealth of which some 25 species were of timber value. To-day, that splendid primeval growth has van- ished. Here and there a small stand of virgin pine, hemlock, beach or oak, may be seen and the intelligent observer sighs regretfully as he ccmsiders the despoliation of this great natural resource by an unthinking civilization. And yet, in Pennsylvania is working the leaven of a constructive program, which, if carried through, may in time restore much of the lost beauty and economic value that was formerly ours. In the industrial development of the Commonwealth due to its vast mineral resources, wastage' of the forest, destruction of game and fish, and pollution of streams were inevitable, but there is to-day an awakening in the minds of thinking men and women, and a growing determination to restore, wdiere it is possible, something of the grandeur of the original Pennsylvania to its denuded hillsides, to preserve and propagate our supply of beneficial wild life, to guard the purity of such of our streams as remain unsullied, and by control of industrial and municipal wastes to restore other water ways to a condition of comparative cleanliness. This movement toward a restoration of the outdoor values of the Commonwealth is generally referred to under the title of "Con- servation." This term in its true sense implies a wise use of natural resources by propagation, protection and sane administra- tion. It is still possible in this great industrial Commonwealth, with its dense population, in the course of one afternoon's drive, to view a stand of virgin pine and hemlock, to see a natural beaver dam with a possible glimpse of one or more of its busy little citizens, to see trout twenty inches or more in length in their native stream! to catch sight of wild white-tailed deer, just possibly a black bear, INTENTIONAL SECOND EXPOSURE

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