40 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



slight the present need of preservation may appear." — 



EOBERT GeIGGS. 



Early action is always important, for the destruction 

 of natural areas is continuous and progressive. Fifteen 

 years ago the present site of Gary, Indiana, was public 

 land, having reverted to the state for taxes. There was 

 no particular reason why a considerable area could not 

 have been reserved at that time by mere legislative act. 

 The areas of dunes in northern Indiana are of immense 

 importance to thousands of citizens of Chicago and other 

 parts of Illinois; high schools, and two or three large 

 universities need them for instruction in natural science, 

 and they lie close at hand (see figures 1 and 2). Now 

 however the land is held at an enormous price and the 

 argument that reserves will interfere mth commercial 

 development has to be met. The Dunes National Park As- 

 sociation is striving to secure the reservation of some 

 parts, but for considerable distances about each of the 

 industrial centers the natural vegetation has been de- 

 stroyed and no parks have been reserved by the munici- 

 palities concerned. 



One who is interested in the preservation of an area 

 usually wakes up to the fact that it is in immediate dan- 

 ger when the destruction is in progress and it is too late 

 to stop it. Early action is the only effective kind of action. 



KECREATION" AND PRESERVATION" 



''The most efficient means for preserving areas for 

 study is by creating a lasting public interest in them and 

 the public is interested mainly in that with which it 

 most comes in contact. One cannot hope to be successful 

 in a general policy of establishing preserves without de- 

 veloping an active public interest. Outside of material 

 advantages, which have been so ably set forth, the chief 

 public interest in preserves is, and will continue to be, 

 a recreational interest. Interest, direct or indirect, in 

 camping, hunting, and fishing is the greatest power avail- 

 able for establishing and maintaining preserves, for pub- 

 lic interest is as necessary for the maintenance as for 

 the establishment of preserves. As with life in general 



