BUREAU OF SPORT FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE 

 PESTICIDE-WILDLIFE. REVIEW: 1959 



by 



James B. DeWitt and John L. George 



INTRODUCTION 



During World War II normal supply lines were cut off and various coun- 

 tries attempted to develop substitutes of needed imported materials. Perhaps 

 in no field were chemists more successful than in the development of synthetic 

 organic pesticides to replace the botanicals and inorganic materials tempo- 

 rarily unavailable or in short supply. The first of these compounds to be 

 developed was DDT. Production of this compound began in 1943, and its success 

 in overcoming insect-borne diseases made it a potent military weapon. 



In 1945 the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service began tests in cooperation 

 with the Division of Forest Insect Investigations of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture to determine the side effects of pest control programs. Annual 

 summaries of these early studies were reported by Cottam and Higgins [l3], 

 Nelson and Surber [45], and Linduska and Surber [42]. Since then the Service 

 has not prepared annual summaries, but Service personnel have contributed 88 

 special reviews or papers in this field and numerous unpublished reports. 



This report discusses the scope of the pesticide-wildlife problem; re- 

 views the current activities and findings of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and 

 Wildlife, cooperators, and others in this field; summarizes the legislative 

 developments of the past few years; and gives the Bureau's recommendations for 

 use of pesticides with minimum harm to wildlife. 



In the preparation of this report the authors have had the benefit of the 

 advice and thinking of many of their colleagues in the Bureau of Sport Fisher- 

 ies and Wildlife. At the Bureau level, Director D. H. Janzen and Assistant 

 Director L. A. Parker have offered comments; in the office of the Branch of 

 Wildlife Research, Dr. D. L. Leedy, Mr. C. E. Carlson, Dr. E. H. Dustman, and 

 Mr. W. W. Dykstra reviewed the manuscript; at the Denver Wildlife Research 

 Center, Dr. R. B. Finley reviewed the report and contributed unpublished infor- 

 mation on pesticide-wildlife studies in western United States; at the Fish- 

 Pesticide Research Laboratory, Dr. 0. B. Cope reviewed the report and, with 

 Mr. P. J. Frey, contributed unpublished information on the effects of pesticides 

 on fish and other aquatic organisms; at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 

 Dr. J. L. Buckley, Mr. C. M. Menzie, Mr. V. Adomaitis, Mr. W. Reichel, Mr. and 

 Mrs. W. H. Stickel, Mr. W. Rosene, Jr., Dr. P. A. Stewart, Mr. C. Vance, Mr. 

 J. Spann, Mr. S. Leskosky, Mr. D. Landon, and Mrs. F. Fochler have aided in the 

 studies reported and/or preparation of this report. 



