M o nthly B ull etin 5 



The National Parks Situation. — T. Gilbert Pearson, President of the 

 National Association of Audubon Societies, who has been keeping careful 

 watch of the attacks being made in Congress on the Yellowstone National 

 Park, reports as follows: 



First, H. R. 12,644, introduced by Congressman Smith of Idaho, sought authority 

 to build a reservoir covering 8,000 acres in the southwestern part of the Park. Another 

 bill, introduced by Senator Walsh of Montana, known as S. B. 3,554, sought to secure 

 in Congress authorization to dam the Yellowstone River and make a reservoir of the 

 beautiful Yellowstone Lake. Smith wants water for irrigating lands in Idaho, and 

 Walsh wants to use the waters of the Yellowstone River for irrigation north of the 

 Park in Montana. 



There would appear to be no reason why the waters of the Fall River Basin and the 

 waters of the Yellowstone River could not be dammed up outside of the Park, but 

 this is not what is wanted, for to do this the waters of the reservoir would cover lands, 

 some of which would have to be paid for, whereas if the waters can be dammed up in 

 the Park, no payment would have to be made, as the lands of the Park belong to the 

 pubhc. What these men are after is free storage base for the water that they want 

 to use for private commercial purposes outside the Park. 



The plans which these men sought to carry out by means of Federal legislation 

 would not only be detrimental to the Yellowstone Park, but the success of either would 

 mean the setting of a precedent which would eventually result in the practical destruc- 

 tion of a large amount of the scenic beauty and interest of this territory, which nearly 

 fifty years ago was set aside by Congress as an area in which the natural beauties of 

 the region were to be forever preserved. 



When through the publicity of this and other organizations the general public 

 became advised as to just what was taking place, protests in the form of letters, tele- 

 grams and petitions by the thousands were sent to senators and congressmen, with the 

 result that it was found impossible to further advance the bill. 



That publicity killed the Fall River Basin project was admitted by Congressman 

 Smith of Idaho at a memorable hearing before the Select Committee on Water Power 

 of the House of Representatives on January 6, 1921. 



In addition to the National Association of Audubon Societies, many other organi- 

 zations and numerous individuals immediately took up the cudgel in defense of the 

 Park. The responses were immediate and effective, and the thousands of protests of 

 outraged citizens that poured into the Capitol resulted in stopping further progress of 

 both of these bills and they died with the adjournment of Congress on March 3. The 

 Walsh bill never came to a vote in either House, but the Smith bill did pass the Senate 

 and was more than once up for passage on the Unanimous Consent Calendar in the 

 House. 



Action by the organizations interested in the preservation of the Parks and the 

 wild life within their boundaries was not taken a minute too soon. It should be borne 

 in mind, however, that while we have won the first battle, the opposition is gathering 

 its forces for a new attack at the next session of Congress, and we shall probably have 

 the fight all over again. Mr. Smith has already served notice that he is going to make 

 another attempt to get possession of the Fall River section of the Yellowstone Park* 

 in fact he is reported to have stated he is going to introduce a bill to take this entire 

 territory out of the Park, and should he succeed in this undertaking, it would, of course, 

 then be easy to use the waters. 



Bird Protection Material. — Now is the time to put out bird-houses. 

 At the office of the Society may be seen the best types of these, some of 

 them may be bought here and taken away; any of them may be ordered 

 through us and will be promptly delivered. Not only are the bird-houses 

 found to be valuable to the birds, which are great insect-destroyers, but 

 bird-houses themselves, in some instances, serve a double purpose. They 

 house the birds and later on develop into very successful gypsy-moth 

 traps, as the following letter from an ardent bird-lover whose estate is a 

 veritable bird sanctuary will show: 



