ECOLOGY AND WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 481 



and grazing on the surrounding hills allow erosion to proceed at a rapid 

 rate. Excessive draining of swamps and small ponds has destroyed the 

 nesting ground of ducks and geese and spoiled the recreation for many 

 hunters. The pollution of our streams with sewage and factory wastes 

 has turned many of them into aquatic deserts with hardly any organism 

 surviving and certainly not game fish. Excessive hunting and other 

 factors have either exterminated or greatly reduced the numbers of our 

 wild game, and at the present time thirty species of mammals and fifteen 

 of birds are believed in danger of extinction. Most of our 375 million 

 acres of primeval forest have been slashed and chopped to the ground 

 and further injured by careless fires and excessive grazing. 



As early as 1818 the people of Massachusetts recognized the decline 

 of wild life and placed a closed season on snipe ; and in 1821 New Hamp- 

 shire protected beaver, mink, and otter by a closed season. The first 

 state game wardens are said to have been appointed in Michigan and 

 Wisconsin in 1887. By 1890 nearly all states had some kind of game 

 laws, but they were very poorly enforced. The wearing of stuffed birds 

 on hats became very popular about the turn of the century, and song- 

 birds were slaughtered in vast numbers to supply the millinery trade. 

 The plumes from the heads of breeding egrets also became very popular. 

 Since these plumes were best developed during the breeding season, the 

 birds were slaughtered on their nests leaving the nestlings to die. This 

 created strong resentment not only among nature lovers, but among all 

 those with humane instincts. A national appeal to women led many 

 groups of women to pledge themselves not to wear stuffed birds or 

 plumes on their hats, but the free advertising is said to have doubled the 

 sale of the product. The Audubon Society established a refuge for 

 nesting colonies of the egrets in Florida, and two of their wardens were 

 killed by the plume hunters. However, protection continued with ex- 

 cellent results. In North Carolina the State Audubon Society was in- 

 corporated in 1903 as the game enforcement department. Fees for hunt- 

 ing licenses went to them, and they hired the wardens. The State Audu- 

 bon Societies were particularly active in many states in the first few 

 years of the present century and helped to pass state laws to protect 

 songbirds which were still being eaten in large numbers. 



The federal government came to the aid of the states in 1900 by pass- 

 ing an act which prohibited the sale of "bootleg" game in interstate com- 

 merce. However, it was not until the United States signed a treaty 

 with Canada in 1916 to protect migratory game, insectivorous, and other 

 migratory nongame birds that the federal government lent real aid in 

 this field. With federal wardens aiding state wardens, the restoration 

 of many kinds of wild life proceeded very successfully. The very im- 



