Appendices to Pacific Water Plan Review Draft

Document: Appendices to Pacific Southwest Water Plan Review Draft "Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife", August 1963, page 1Draft - 7/23/63 Appendix FISH AND WILDLIFE IN RELATION TO THE PACIFIC SOUTHWEST WATER PLAN Chapter I. The Resources Importance Fish and wildlife are Important renewable resources of the Pacific Southwest, a vast area of spacious deserts relieved by raw barren mountains, deep canyons, and timbered highlands, bordered on the east by the Continental Divide and on the west by the Pacific Coast ranges. The burgeoning population of the region shows great interest in such resources, especially in the species prized for their sporting attributes. The interest of the people of the Pacific Southwest in fish and wildlife understandably transcends that shown solely by fishermen and hunters. Many find interest in such highly satisfactory activities as observing wildlife and especially so in the case of birds. They belong to clubs dedicated to exchanging information on identification and various aspects of avian life histories covering such subjects as occurrence, migration, and numerical abundance, to mention but a few facets of bird study. Still others find great satisfactions in wildlife photography, taking nature hikes, reading about wildlife, and attending lectures and movics. Many other similar activities could be described. And in one way or another, the exercize of this interest contributes to the well-being of a large segment of the growing population of the Pacific Southwest and to its economic blood-stream. With the anticipated growth in population in the Pacific Southwest, 39,000,000 by the year 2020, it is estimated that an annual demand for about 98,000,000 man-days of fishing and 18,000,000 man-days of hunting will be reached in this great region by the end of this projected period. These estimates are based on the average rates of fishing and hunting in the United States today. While statisties of this kind do not measure the entire interest of the population at large, they do provide a significant measure of the economic importance of fishing and hunting in the Pacific Southwest. There can be little question of this importance. It is apparent that 1Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 2,658,408 byte