AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GREAT PUBLIC SERVICE 



By Henry S. Graves 



Dcon, ScJwol of Forestry, Yale University 



Member of Honorary Advisory Council, The Roosevelt Wild Life 

 Forest Experiment Station, Syracuse, Nczv York ' 



One of the most encouraging signs in recent years has been the 

 changing public attitude toward the conservation of wild life. There 

 is an increasing volume of public protest against the unintelligent 

 destruction of wild life that still characterizes many parts of the 

 country. Of special significance, however, is the growing apprecia- 

 tion of the value of wild life to the people of the nation. We are 

 beginning to realize also that the perpetuation and right use of wild 

 life involve much more than the enactment of perfunctory legisla- 

 tion and the employment of politically appointed game wardens. 



Wild life is now seen to be a natural resource whose conservation 

 and proper utilization are of real service in advancing the welfare 

 of our people. While many persons may still think of wild life con- 

 servation as primarily of benefit to a limited group of people who 

 have a taste for shooting and fishing and who can afford to indulge in 

 it, their number is rapidly diminishing. The objectives of those 

 behind the new movement of wild life conservation are much broader 

 and more far reaching than this. It is a good deal like the good 

 roads movement. There are many who see in it special advantages 

 for pleasure drives for owners of automobiles, and the builders of 

 motor vehicles may be strongly back of the movement for better 

 roads. But the main objectives of good roads are the opening of 

 the country to commerce, the development of communities and crea- 

 tion of new and more comfortable homes, the stimulus to the use of 

 undeveloped land, and the establishment of new industries, as well 

 as the encouragement to people to come more closely in contact with 

 nature. 



The protection of bird life is no longer a fad of a few senti- 

 mentalists. It is a practical problem of safeguarding the farm, field, 

 garden and forest from insect pests. The depletion of our fisheries 

 takes on new significance now that the price of fish in the market is 

 approaching that of choice meats. In many forest regions the people 

 are beginning to see that an abundance of game and fish is attracting 

 to their communities thousands of visitors who bring large benefits 



[113] 



