TRADITIONS OF WATERFOWL 



Foley, 1954b). Bright young men in every corner of the land search for 

 information aimed at a better understanding of this great resource. An- 

 nually an international team, composed of more than fifty biologists rep- 

 resenting many different agencies, surveys the waterfowl breeding popula- 

 tion from the central United States north to the Arctic Ocean and beyond, 

 so that the pattern of the harvest may be fairly planned. Another team 

 appraises waterfowl on their wintering grounds each January. 



For all this new interest, however, for all the technical advancements, 

 for all the many pounds of published facts about life histories, numbers, 

 ranges, food habits, territorial requirements, for all the new dams and im- 

 poundments, we have not learned how to draw a compromise with the 

 economists who are doing away with the breeding range faster than it can 

 ever be restored. Perhaps we have learned more about the behavior and 

 living requirements of ducks than of ourselves. The time when we start 

 saving the prairie marshes may arrive when we somehow realize that we 

 need these wetlands for our own human race, when we understand that the 

 real concern is not for ducks, but for the people themselves : can we con- 

 tinue to be strong and healthy on this North America after we have let 

 the gems of upland waters drain to the valleys? 



The real concern is for us, the people. We who wish to keep marshes and 

 their waterfowl must study ourselves and our human society. We are at the 

 threshold of an era we cannot comprehend. But surely we know that each 

 nation must find its strength in the land. The people of North America can- 

 not remain always strong if the value of our prairie land is measured wholly 

 in terms of wheat and barley. 





