vent the increase of waterfowl as did the guns of the market shooters, Sim- 
ilar conditions applied with equal force to other species. Cultivation, 
deforestation, loweri ne of water levels by drainage, and the pollution of 
many of the remaining natural reservoirs and streams placed woland game and 
other forms of wildlife under a tremendous handicap. Agriculture claimed 
not the fertile lands cna invaded the submarginal areas as well--and 
the domain of the wild living things that required wilderness environment 
shrank away from the invader. 
A Land-Use Problem 
H, W. Nelson, a former Chief of the Biological Survey, was one of the 
first to point to the truth, when in 1915 he began to urge the immediate 
acquisition of marsh and water areas to be set aside as permanent sanctuaries 
for waterfowl and other ae ef wildlife. It was not until 1926.) mowemens 
that there was finally vessed the Migratory Bird. Conservation Act, which 
authorized approvriat Ae of funds amounting to about $8,000, 000 to be ex- 
pended over a go ae period for the purpose advanced by Dr... Nelson. Omi 
about $1,200,000 ha S actually been “pRrODT a ee thus far; bub Dy the pees 
~ 
) 
Sage. of the, act, cas gave its endorsgenent, to a national polvey on wmale. 
life restoration and declared the preservation of habitat to be a funda- 
mental part of the Government's restoration olan: ae act has since been 
supplemented by others and by the allocation of emergency funds designed to 
carry out these purvoses. 
Not only Congress but other legislative and administrative bodies 
anc the people generally at last begen t6 appreciate the value of preserv= 
ing and restoring wildlife and to understand its intimate, relationship to 
land utilization. The long evcle of drought beginning in 1915 and contin- 
fy 
uing with an intensity almost unbroken for two decades was responsible for 
@ new and HOuE RE Re imterest by the public in the condi; 20m of omszanie mee 
tional resources of all kinds, Words and phrases Geseriptive of somlveros 
sion, lowered water tables, and the destruction of vegetative cover had 
been meaningless terms and vague to the mind of 3 rage citizen. 
suddenly they became clothed with disturbing significances when the somber, 
baleful shadows of the dust storms drifted across the country, telling 
or the destruction. of millions of tons. of fertile soil, or when floods 
roarad unchecked along the inland waterways like huge ruptured arteries 
spilling out the very life blocd of the Nation. The conservationist now 
finds an interested and anxious audience where hitherto his warnings had 
been ignored or heard with tolerance and ncolitely concealed contempt. The 
great hand of Nature was writing a message of foreboding; the symbols were 
whirling clouds of choking dust, thunderous torrents, dying cattle, and 
destitute humanity. The me ee means that the economic and social secur- 
ity of the Nation is utterly dependent upon the national ability to con- 
serve and administer wisely the organic resources and products of the soil. 
Wildlife is one of these. 
