Pe name the progress of the mosquito-control work in Worcester County 
in assuring that detrinental effects on wildlife habitet would be held at 
..@ pininun.. During the past. year, wildlife interests have also received 
the cooperation of C. T. Williamson, who has constructed, some valuable 
‘wildlife ponds in Suffolk County, Long Island. In Rhode Island, Milton 
H. Price apparently has also had success in controlling nosquitces with- 
out lowering water levels and destroying wildlife habitat. On a 2,000- 
acre tract. near Westerly he is digging ponds with radiating Vetere in 
an intermittent marsh area. These ponds ore then ecnnected-with, a nat- 
uaral fish reservoir in the marsh so that natural enenies are always 
present in abundance. Similar methods have been successfully applied on 
‘Prudence Island without lowering the naturel water levels, and it is 
understood that effective and satisfactory mosquito control has becn thus 
achieved there, 
“Wilalife interests feel thet water control rather than dreinage 
ic ‘should be practiced in any good waterfowl area in which there is need for 
‘nlosquito control, Because of the great ‘diversity of marsh conditions and 
“the complex and varied requirements of the wildlife. and the. mosquitoes 
that frequent marshes, no uniform or standard treatment can be prescribed 
that will either edequately control the nosquitoes or develop- the parti- 
cular habitat that nay be desired for any given nuuber of valuable species. 
pe: ettenpts at drainage. nay do more harm then good. 
; In some areas control may be fully accomplished and wildlife inter- 
ests well served by drawing off all surface water ns the nosquito- 
breeding seascn and then appropriately impounding the areca for wildlife 
during fall, winter, end early spring. During the wuetas season cultivat—- 
ed grains or desirable natural wildlife food plants.can be grown in abun- 
dance, These plants can then be made available to wildlife when.the water 
is impounded. The use of weir boards, and of tide and sluice gates on the 
area nay .be found practicable and effective in serving both masquito con- 
trol and wildlife conserva ation.. With such structures, desirable water 
levels can be maintained or regulated as the need arises. In certain tidal 
marshes these structures will in no way obstruct the necessary tidal ebb 
and flow, yet at the sare time they will insure the requisite minimum head 
of water. With these devices an optimum depth of water can be maintained 
in a flowage streen, 
' Any method of nosquito control based on the naintenance of a water 
level sufficient to meet the needs of wildlife igs much preferred by. nost 
conservationists to drainage. Wildlife interests cannot be blamed for be- 
lieving that extensive drainage of marshes results in an abnormal concen- 
tration of wildlife in areas unable to support more than the normal popu- 
lation. After all, it mist be remembered that there is such a thing in 
Nature as the carrying capacity of an environent,. whether it be mankind 
or wildlife. Drainage not only removes water from a marsh but also all 
life dependent upon it for existence. The enrlier balance set by Nature 
is thereby displaced, and fishes,, birds, insects, and all other natural 
enemies of the mosquito are driven into the few remaining restricted areas 
that cannot be drained by ditching. In other word the normal life of the 
‘marsh is forced to concentrate in arenas unable to support it, ‘There it 
becomes prey to all the ills that may asscil it, whether these are dis- 
5p 
