Save That Game: 1915– 1919

On January 15, 1915, a week after returning from his father’s funeral and two days before his twenty-eighth birthday, Leopold handed in a memo on how to restore game in District 3. He proposed that Forest Service policy should: • Consider game animals as forest “products” (just as trees are); • Manage the wild species scientifically for count and quality; Set aside land for game refuges where hunting permits would be sold and limited; • Use the profits to pay rangers to work on predator control and enforce state game laws. A plan that covered these points, claimed Leopold, could successfully bring game back to the forests of the Southwest. Ringland gave the memo his ardent approval. He recognized that, in essence, Leopold was asking the Forest Service to expand its definition of its responsibilities, and the proposal had importance for forests nationwide. Ringland advised Leopold to schedule a meeting with a representative from the Washington, DC office, Leon Kneipp. Kneipp rejected Leopold’s plan. The Forest Service would not sink any money into an expensive gamble. Kneipp felt that rangers should protect game out of a sense of public duty, and not expect any pay or time off from their tasks to do so. Nor would the Forest Service set aside land for game refuges until the public demanded it. Needless to say, Leopold was disappointed. The rejection came at a time when he faced head on the shortsightedness of the Forest Service’s policies in the grazing office. Leopold could see no way to encourage new seedlings without granting fewer grazing permits. His supervisor, John Kerr, cared only about revenues. He pushed Leopold to increase the number of permits, as well as to work out the forms and petty details. The two ended up in daily headlocks. Frustration built up in Leopold like a mountain storm. Ringland hated to see one of his most innovative foresters wasted in paperwork. He knew he would lose Leopold if he didn’t act quickly to find a position that suited Aldo’s ambitions and abilities.