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<br />- <br />LI") <br />C"'") <br /> <br />FISH AND HILDLIFB SERVICE REPORT <br /> <br />Wildlife Section <br /> <br />15. \Vildlife of importance as game or for fur production in the area <br />consists of deer, pheasants, waterfowl, muskrat, skunk, civet cat, <br />coyote, weasel, bobcat, mink, and badger. <br /> <br />16. Big Game. - Deer move down from the White River National Forest <br />to the northeast and from the Grand Mesa National Forest to the south <br />to winter on the mesa and valley lands along the Colorado River. No <br />effect upon these herds is ant icipated. <br /> <br />17. Waterfowl. - There is some use of the Colorado River by waterfowl, <br />primarily mallards, in the spring and fall. Local hunting pressure is <br />moderately heavy in the vicinity of Rifle. Maintenance of a minimum <br />pool of 1,000 acre-feet at Rifle Gap Reservoir w:>uld provide additional <br />resting area. Grain crops now comprise 18 percent of the total crop <br />acreage in the Rifle Creek area. It is reasonable to expect an in- <br />crease in yield and an accompanying increase in waste grain available <br />for waterfowl food. It is estimated that an annual benefit of about <br />$75 would accrue to the project from enhanced waterfowl values. <br /> <br />18. Upland Gams Birds. - A one-day pheasant season was held in Garfield <br />County on November 17, 1946. Seventy-five percent of the hunters were <br />contacted by personnel of the Colorado Game and Fish Commis sion. The <br />average bag was one bird per hunter in an average hunting tirre of four <br />and three-fourths hours. <br /> <br />19. This area, because of a combination of suitable food and cover, <br />was selected for intensive pheasant stocking operations as a result of <br />studies made under Colorado Pittman-Robertson Project 17-R in 1941. <br />Work done by the Colorado Game and Fish Corrmission under this project <br />culmina ted in the addition of this locality to the upland game bird <br />hunting areas in t he State. <br /> <br />20. Additional supplementary irrigation water for 5,400 acres of land <br />would not measurably increase the present value of pheasant habitat. <br />The addition of 1,900 acres of new lands to the irrigated area would <br />result in additional pheasant habitat, the value of which would amount <br />to about $950 annually, based upon an annual yield of one bird per 10 <br />acres. <br /> <br />21. Fur Animals. - Exclusive of beaver, muskrat pelts represent about <br />60 percent of the fur sales from this county. Mink pelts represent <br />about 20 percent and skunk pelts about 9 percent of such sales. Fur <br />sales, other than beaver, totaled $1,545 in 1939. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />-4- <br />