XXV 



CONSERVATION AND ITS MEANING 



Preview. The usefulness of forests • Forest waste and methods of 

 conservation • Waste and conservation of animal life : Fisheries ; shellfish ; 

 birds; Mammals • Conservation of wild life • Present methods of conser- 

 vation • Organizations for conservation : State conservation departments ; 

 Biological surveys ; Federal agencies ; Bureau of Fisheries ; National Parks • 

 Is there a unified program? • Suggested readings. 



PREVIEW 



This country has been blessed beyond many areas of the earth in 

 its abundance of Nature's resources. The first settlers found forests, 

 inhabited with game, covering the land, streams and rivers alive with 

 fish, and great plains supporting herds of buffalo. Yet today, with 

 our country embarking on almost its one hundred and fiftieth year 

 of national life, its wild life is almost exterminated, its forests are only 

 one eighth of their former size, and its oil, coal, and mineral deposits 

 are rapidly approaching depletion. Increasing population has meant 

 the use of more power, more fuel, more mineral wealth. Consequently 

 man has disturbed more and more the balance of nature, sometimes 

 with disastrous results. No one who has traveled through a cut-over 

 or burned-over forest area, or through an exhausted coal or oil region, 

 can escape seeing the necessity for immediate and drastic control of 

 our waste. No fisherman or hunter who remembers the bounty of 

 the streams and forests of former days can escape understanding 

 why there are now restrictions on the size of the bag of game or limit 

 of fish. All thinking citizens must realize not only the need for 

 conservation of what is left of our natural resources, but also the 

 necessity of intelHgently adding to our supplies of living things by 

 means of reforestation, fish culture, stocking of streams and lakes, 

 as well as providing more food supplies and refuges for wild life. 



The Usefulness of Forests 



Forests have indirect values and uses other than commercial which 

 mean more to man's future welfare than a supply of lumber or fuel 

 or forest products, important as these are. History shows that as man 

 has cut down forests, tilled land, and built cities, destructive physical 



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