RESOURCES AND THE FUTURE 



By: 



Steve Bayless, 



Montana Fish & Game Department 



In today's modern society, complete with all its electronic gadgets for doing things better and 

 faster, little time is left for the average person to think about resource conservation. Everyone 

 is just too busy to stop and consider what we now have in Montana, and what we can expect in the 

 future. 



But what will the natural resource situation be in Montana fifty years from now? And what 

 about the great variety of outdoor recreation we now enjoy ? Will Montana continue to be a sports- 

 man's paradise for our future generations, or will the situation change as it has done so often in 

 other states? 



The answers to these questions will depend on how well we educate our children. The 

 responsibility for soil, water and related resource conservation bears more heavily on each new 

 generation, since our increasing population continues to create more land and water problems. 

 Therefore, it is our obligation to prepare our children so well that they will carry out their 

 conservation responsibilities more wisely and effectively than their forefathers. 



But in order to do this, our young people must have a basic understanding of what is involved 

 in these life-supporting resources. A true appreciation of the real values of our resources and 

 some practical laiowledge of conservation principles is most important. 



The first step is to teach conservation in the nation's classrooms, from kindergarten through 

 college. And this should be easy. Soil, water, plant and wildlife conservation are part and parcel 

 of conventional subjects such as elementary science, biology, nature study, geography, health and 

 nutrition, and other sciences and social studies. 



To confine the teaching of an "agricultural" subject such as soil and water conservation to 

 rural areas only is no longer practical. The conservation and wise use of these and allied natural 

 resources affects every one of our 190 million people. All of us are concerned, from the farmer 

 and rancher who produce our food and fiber crops to the youngest city consumer of milk from his 

 nursing bottle. 



In teaching our children to conserve what they now have, they should also learn that a sunset 

 over a green countryside has more esthetical value than the most costly painting; that outdoor 

 recreation should not be peddled on the street corner; and that our resources should not be weighed 

 and sold merely by the pound. If these basic values are understood by our children, then Montana 

 will continue to be a great state. But they can only be understood through education, and this 

 education must start in the classroom. 



