Cfje Hubufcon ^octettes 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 



Edited by T.GILBERT PEARSON, Secretary 



Address all correspondence, and send all remittances for dues and contributions, to 



the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. 



Telephone, Columbus 7327 



William Dutcher, President 

 Frederic A. Lucas, Acting President T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary 



Theodore S. Palmer, First Vice-President Jonathan Dwight, Treasurer 



Samuel T. Carter, Jr., Attorney 



Any person, club, school or company in sympathy with the objects of this Association may become 

 a member of it, and all are welcome. 



Classes of Membership in the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild 

 Birds and Animals: 



$5 annually pays for a Sustaining Membership 

 $100 paid at one time constitutes a Life Membership 

 $1,000 constitutes a person a Patron 

 $5,000 constitutes a person a Founder 

 $25,000 constitutes a person a Benefactor 



Form of Bequest: — I do hereby give and bequeath to the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals (Incorporated), of the City of New York. 



THE KLAMATH LAKE SITUATION 



While those friends of wild-life protection 

 who have read William L. Finley's report 

 on Klamath and Malheur Lakes Bird Reser- 

 vations in the last issue of Bird-Lore are, 

 in a measure, familiar with the desperate 

 straits in which these two reservations 

 stand today, further remarks may be in 

 order. 



Lower Klamath, which comprises the 

 main body of Klamath Lake Reservation, 

 had a large bordering area of lands that 

 were swamp, and a considerable sentiment 

 arose in favor of making these lands suit- 

 able for agricultural operations. Some 

 years ago the Government Reclamation 

 Service undertook to do this by making a 

 series of canals and ditches. After expending 

 $283,225 and overcoming only a small per- 

 centage of the difficulties to be met with, 

 the plan seems to have been abandoned. 

 The Lake was made a bird reservation and 

 hundreds of thousands of water-birds, in- 

 cluding Ducks, Geese, White Pelicans, 

 Caspian Terns, Gulls, Grebes and Coots, 

 continued to make of this area of 60 or 

 more square miles, one vast nursery for 

 bird-life. But those who wanted the lake 

 drained continued their efforts, with the 

 result that the legislatures of the states of 



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California and Oregon, in which the lake 

 lies, recently passed laws for the purpose 

 of especially encouraging the drainage of 

 the lake, particularly the swampy margins, 

 and ceding such rights as they might have 

 to the United States Government. 



An Oregon company, known as the 

 Klamath Draining District, took over 

 20,000 acres of lands lying in the state of 

 Oregon for a consideration, and up to date 

 have made their first two payments on 

 the land. It was evidently the hope of the 

 Government officials that companies or 

 individuals might take up the California 

 territory. 



The lake is fed by a stream that runs in 

 from Klamath River on the north. A 

 railroad, running from the main line of the 

 Southern Pacific Railroad to Klamath 

 Falls, Ore., runs across the marshes above 

 Upper Klamath, and where it crosses the 

 stream that feeds the lake, a gate has been 

 put in. This gate has been closed, with the 

 result that no more water flows into Lower 

 Klamath. There is very little rainfall in 

 that region, and, naturally, during the 

 past summer the lake very largely dried up. 



A member of the Audubon Society who 

 recently visited the region states that in 



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