ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



19 



A School Conservation Project 



To the Northern Illinois State Normal School belongs the distinction 

 of initiating and maintaining a conservation project and thus establishing 

 what may prove a happy precedent for other schools. This, as is believed, 

 the only school-supported project of the kind in the country, is a large 

 heronry situated in Ogle county near the village of Egan. A grove of Nor- 

 way spruce and European larch furnishes the nesting sites, the spruce, how- 

 ever, being occupied to the well nigh total disregard of the larch. About one- 

 half acre of the grove consists of spruce trees and nearly every tree is 

 occupied when nesting is at its height. This means between seventy-five 

 and ninety pairs of birds. 



Some years ago gunners were accustomed to shoot off numbers of the 

 birds simply as a pastime. Through the co-operation of Air. W. \V. 

 Jones of Sunnyside Farm, the present owners of the farm where the 

 Heronry is situated were interested in the plan proposed whereby through 

 mutual assistance and co-operation with the Normal School the grove 

 and its inmates should be permanently protected. A contract was drawn 

 up signed by President John W. Cooke of the Normal School and by 

 the owners of the land which showed the interest and generous spirit 

 of helpfulness with which the owners and administrators of the property 

 entered into the undertaking. 



The last sentence of the contract reads: "This contract is to extend 

 over a period of five years with no compensation for the owners other 

 than the right of co-operating with such measures as lead toward the 

 protection of birds and the properties concerned." 



For two years now the plan has been in operation. A warden is 

 employed to warn off intruders with hostile intent, but genuine bird lovers 

 are welcomed. Mr. Jones has recently undertaken to have the whole farm 

 of three hundred and twenty acres and neighboring farms incorporated 



