PAPERS OF GENERAL INTEREST 37 



presee^t:s of xatueal coxditioxs^ 



By Victor E, Shelford, University of Illinois 



I. Introduction 

 II. Some Reasons For Preser\-ing Natural Areas 



(Prepared by the Committee on the Preservation of Natural 

 Conditions of the Ecological Society of America, arranged and 

 illustrated by V. E. S.) 



III. Combination of Interests in Preserves 



IV. Management of Preserves 



V. Methods of Securing Reservation of Areas 

 VI. General Problems Related to the Preserves 



1. Agricultural Practice. 



2. Swamp drainage and Aquicultural Experiment Stations 

 VII. Descriptions of Natural areas 



1. Preserved Areas 



2. Proposed Preserves 



I. INTRODUCTION 



A few years ago the writer was appointed cliairman of 

 a committee charged with the listing of all x)reserved and 

 preservable areas of natural conditions in Xorth Amer- 

 ica. The committee is composed of about twenty-five 

 members scattered throughout the United States and 

 Canada, The first work was to make the list and when 

 this had made some progress, to agitate for the reserva- 

 tion of such important areas as demanded immediate at- 

 tention. The whole problem of securing the preservation 

 of areas which is one of the objects of the work is very 

 complex. At the outset the committee felt the lack of 

 any definite guides in carrying on the work. However, 

 a certain amount of progress has been made and out of 

 this progress we can distinguish certain high places. 



^ The work of a Committee of the Ecolog-ical Society of America Edi- 

 ted in proof by the Academy's Committee on an Ecological Survey of the 

 State. 



In part a contribution from the Zoological Laboratories of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois No. 160. The University supplied the illustrations. 



