496 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



Women will get on the higher level you talked about earlier today, 

 and when you get them excited, you have the battle half won. 



Mr. WHYTE. Commissioner Gill has brought up a very important 

 point. I see we also have here the man who has sparked the con- 

 servation commission movement in Massachusetts, Stuart De Bard. 



STUART DE BARD. I might mention, in Massachusetts in eight 

 years, 217 towns and cities have formed conservation commissions. 

 They are appointive offices, usually seven people working without 

 pay. They have the help of other town facilities. They get local 

 loyalty and State expertise, and also matching funds on a 50-50 basis. 



This has grown to such an extent that our little town of 15,000 

 paid $10,000 a year out of its tax money for conservation purposes. 



The town of Lexington appropriated $230,000 this year for con- 

 servation to protect marshes. It is economically feasible for de- 

 velopers to buy marshland for $3,000 and sell it for $10,000 house 

 lots unless the town acts first. 



The conservation commission is the mechanism we use successfully. 



Also, I might say that these groups have meetings that work for 

 the schools and all the other organizations in town. 



FRITHJOF M. LUNDE. I am an architect. I would like to make 

 a suggestion aimed at naturalist groups. By way of illustration, I 

 would like to indicate that the largest city in the United States does 

 not have in the offices of its planning commission anything in the 

 way of illustrative material which catalogs, locates and qualifies the 

 values of the natural resources that are left within its boundaries. 

 It is up to the naturalist to tell the planning official where the re- 

 sources are located. 



Mrs. TRISTRAM COFFIN. We have two-thirds of a million women 

 who are working in the Girl Scout movement and, of course, our 

 aims are the same as yours. 



We have a half million girls in the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and 

 some of our main points in our training are to try to teach them con- 

 servation, a love of nature, and the out of doors. 



We know what happens to a child when you take her outside for 

 the first time and she recognizes a chickadee that she has only seen 

 before on a piece of paper. 



We also emphasize conservation. One of the biggest thrills of my 

 life was taking out a mariner scout troop when we had only three 



