POLLUTION OF INLAND STREAMS. 



By M. D. Hart 

 Richmond, Virginia 



History teaches us that the march of civilization has found and 

 always will find man encroaching upon the habitats of our wild 

 life, and in using the land and water for human necessities, wild 

 life must gradually yield its domain. The task ahead of the wild 

 life conservationists is not to undertake to arrest the laws govern- 

 ing human progress, but rather to direct man's course so as to con- 

 serve as much as possible for his use natural resources of im- 

 mense importance to him economically and recreationally. 



There is not a wild life conservationist who does not sub- 

 scribe to these fundamentals. The game departments of every 

 state in the Union trace their creation back to the efforts of the 

 men who hunted and fished, and any state game and fish depart- 

 ment which fails to realize its source of power and which does 

 not lend a sympathetic ear to the hunters and anglers within its 

 confines is doomed sooner or later to perish. So the leaders in 

 this great cause should take these men absolutely into their con- 

 fidence, and though we may now and then be forced to take certain 

 positions seemingly antagonistic to the interests of hunters and 

 anglers on account of the far-reaching future consequences we 

 can foresee, minute and thorough explanations should be made 

 publicly. 



The subject of stream pollution is a burning issue in every 

 eastern state. The habitats of the fish, like those of the big game 

 of America, are being taken up for man's use. The fish will have 

 to give way like the bison, the elk, the moose and the antelope. 

 At the sessions of the general assembly of every state in the east 

 it is the rule rather than the exception to find proposed drastic 

 pollution laws submitted for enactment. Heading and pushing 

 these measures are to be found enthusiastic anglers; opposed to 

 them, the various enterprises polluting the streams and destroy- 

 ing the fish life — recreational interests versus money interests. We 

 state game department officials naturally are aligned solidly behind 

 the interests given to our keeping. We appear before legislative 

 committees and lay down the great, fundamental principles that 



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