28 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
made by various organizations in this and other states, to 
arouse public opinion to an appreciation of the value of wild 
life, as well as to preserve the same. We suggest in this con- 
nection a resolution commending the efforts now making for 
the preservation of the Dune Region in our neighboring 
state. 
There are known to be considerable tracts of land of little 
or no agricultural value within the boundaries of the state of 
Illinois, some of which are adapted excellently to the purposes 
of bird reservations, while others, some of which have greater 
prospective values, retain remnants of the primitive prairie 
flora, while others still are of practically no value as agricul- 
tural or mineral lands, but exhibit remarkable associations of 
plant life, equally interesting geological and geographical for- 
mations, while serving no doubt, as the breeding grounds for 
not a few species of animal life. These tracts, scattered as 
they are over the state, ought, it is the belief of your commit- 
tee, eventually to be acquired and set aside by the people of 
the state, as public parks, or wild life reservations. 
‘Desirable as is the procedure just suggested, its culmination 
depends so entirely upon a public opinion in harmony with 
the idea, that the committee believes it inadvisable to recom- 
mend the immediate inauguration of steps leading directly 
to that end. As an end ultimately to be attained, it believes, 
however, the Academy should definitely state its purpose. 
The recommendations of the committee concern themselves, 
therefore, with steps looking toward the evolution of a public 
opinion favorable to the purposes stated. That this must be 
the mode of attaining them, all will agree. It must be a cam- 
paign of education. The recommendations are: 
1. The acquisition by the State University of a certain tract 
of land known as The Cottonwoods, which may serve it as 
an example of wild life preservation as well as a source of 
materials for teaching purposes. 
2. The setting apart of a suitable area of land by the same 
institution on which may be developed by planting of trees 
and shrubs, conditions suitable for nesting sites of wild birds, 
as well as for the attraction of the same for teaching purposes, 
