51 



A State Natural 1*ark. 



Fred J. Breeze. 



Primeval Indiana has passed away. The gi-eat forest-covered phiins 

 are now bare, and divided into cultivated fields. The wild animals, like 

 the bison, bear and deer, have gone with the forests ; while numerous 

 species of birds and other small animals have also disappeared. Our 

 streams have lost their purity and wild beauty ; some have been fouled 

 with sewage, while others have been dredged and straightened into arti- 

 ficial drainage channels. Thousands of niarshes and hundreds of lakes 

 have been drained, and cultivation of the soil has destroyed thousands of 

 the smaller forms of plant life. 



Not all of these changes are desirable, neither are they all necessary, 

 yet the destruction of natural features will continue; aud it seems that 

 the time is not far away when Indiana will be nothing but a vast expanse 

 of farms and cities, and man, having humanized everything, will be sur- 

 rounded by a surfeit of artificial features, the only fauna and fiora being 

 Uie domestic animals aud plants. 



Some intelligent work ought to be done to stop the useless destruction 

 of the wild forms of nature. Many natural conditions still existing ought 

 to be preserved, and others now gone but still redeemable ought to be re- 

 stored before it is too late. Every farm has some little corner of ground 

 which is not tillable and this should be given over to nature. Here, trees, 

 snrubs and fiowers may grow in freedom, and birds and small ground anl 

 mals find safe retreat. Every county should have a small reserve or na- 

 tural park. Such an area could well serve as a small forest reservation, 

 as well as a place where a rich plant and animal life could safely exist. 



But to maintain an area in which natural or primitive conditions 

 could exist on a suHiciently large scale we need a natural park under the 

 control of the State. It should be several square miles in area, aud should 

 be in the northern ])art of the State, so that it might include a lake withiu 

 its linnts. Its size and shape should make it possible not only to have a 

 lake, but a stream basin drained by the lake. Into this park should be 

 placed the wild animals that formerly lived in this State. Here animals 



