Realizing Aldo Leopold's conservation vision: Oregon wildlife management since 1930

Background/Question/Methods

The recent history of wildlife management in Oregon was explored using interviews of and reports from professionals involved since the 1930s, over 50 years of first hand experience, and archival resources.   

Results/Conclusions

Through the 1930s and 1940s wildlife management in Oregon centered around harvest limits, predator control, introductions, game refuges, game-farming, and beaver relocation.  Over the succeeding decades its emphasis started including habitat protection and restoration, moving fitfully towards Aldo Leopold’s vision of a wildlife management system based on the “land ethic” (ecosystem health).  Described events and species include notable population recoveries (cervids, cougar, beaver), recovery of extirpated species (bighorn sheep, wolves), deliberate introductions of exotic species (chukar partridge, turkey, eastern cottontail), unintentional introduction of exotic species (opossum, nutria, feral swine, feral horses), natural incursion of non-indigenous species (barred owl, moose) and ecosystem conservation (wildlife diversity programs, forest management planning, wetland protection, stream restoration, grazing management, fire management).