CHAPTER 40 



Conservation 



There are many ways in which a knowledge ot the principles of 

 ecology can be used to further human society, one of the most im- 

 portant of which is the rational conservation of our natural resources. 

 Conservation does not mean simply hoarding— not using the resources 

 at all— nor does it imply a simple rationing of our supplies so that some 

 will be left for the future. True conservation implies taking full advan- 

 tage of our knowledge of ecology and managing our ecosystems so as 

 to establish a balance of harvest and renewal, thus ensuring a continu- 

 ous yield of useful plants, animals and materials. In general, man is 

 still acting as though he had not yet learned that he is part of a com- 

 plex environment which must be studied and treated as a whole, and 

 not in terms of isolated "projects," for in attempting to carry out one 

 project he may nullify or completely overcome the results of another 

 one. 



The record of man's past squandering of natural resources is 

 indeed a dark one— the slaughter of the bison that once roamed the 

 western plains, the decimation of the whales, the depletion of our sup- 

 plies of many kinds of fresh-water and marine fishes, the extinction of 

 birds such as the passenger pigeon, the razing of thousands of square 

 miles of forests and the burning of more by careless use of fire, the pollu- 

 tion of streams with sewage and industrial wastes, the careless cultivation 

 of land which has resulted in the complete ruin of many square miles of 

 land and the silting of streams are some of the more flagrant examples of 

 natural resources wasted beyond hope of regaining. State and federal 

 departments of conservation and professional ecologists have been 

 aware of the problem for many years and have begun counter-measures, 

 but the chief task at present is to make the population at large realize 

 the urgency and the magnitude of the job to be done and to get general 

 support for the measures which must be taken. For many aspects of the 

 conservation problem, additional basic ecologic research is needed to 

 determine the possible effects of some proposed conservation measure on 

 the whole ecology of the region. 



369. Agriculture 



After decades of the destructive exploitation of farm lands by 

 planting one crop such as corn or cotton year after year, the soil con- 

 servation program sponsored jointly by federal and local agencies is 



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