MAN AND NATURE 



Saving the Wilderness 

 Aim of Conservationists 



This article was prepared for The Tribune by a 

 leading figure in the field of conservation for the 

 29th annual observance of Conservation Week in 

 California. It was arranged through the co-operation 

 of the Oakland Park Department and the California 

 Conservation Council 



By DON GREAME KELLEY 

 Western Regional Director, the Nature Conservancy 



"If some bits and pieces of 

 our unique wild landscapes 

 are going to be saved as sam- 

 ples of what we had, there's 

 just one way it's going to be 

 done," a small group of biol- 

 ogists said to each other in 



1917. "We've got to do it our- 

 selves." 



That was the beginning of 

 America's largest and most 

 influential "do - it - yourself" 

 conservation group now in op- 

 eration. From that early start 

 as a committee of the Eco- 

 logical Society of America — - 

 a handful of scientists who 

 foresaw the eventual disap- 

 pearance of the natural areas 

 so vital to their research in 

 plant and animal life histories 

 —sprang what is now an 8,000- 

 member national organization 



with nearly a half million dol- 

 lars working capital. This is 

 The Nature Conservancy. 

 NON-PROFIT GROUP 



Taking this name at the 

 time of a major reorganiza- 

 tion in 1950, the Nature Con- 

 servancy is a fully independ- 

 ent, private, non-profit organ- 

 ization incorporated in the 

 District of Columbia and Cali- 

 fornia — in this state in 1957. 



It is run by its members, 

 who annually elect a board of 

 governors of some 35 dedi- 

 cated volunteers — business 

 and professional men and 

 women to whom the preserva- 

 tion of our wild land heritage 

 is worth a great deal of their 

 time and, for some of them, 

 their money. 

 The capital they work with 



is largely a matching and loan 

 fund contributed by principal- 

 ly two or three foundations. 

 This revolving fund is used 

 to buy land, and is replenished 

 by fund drives staged by local 



Chapters to finance projects 

 they sponsor. 



PROFESSIONAL STAFF 



It is a grass-roots opera- 

 tion, aided by a small profes- 

 sional staff, an executive di- 

 rector, in Washington, D.C.— 

 a retired New York school 

 superintendent, Dr. Walter S. 

 Boardman — with two assist- 

 ants and a small office force; 

 and a Western regional direc- 

 tor, Don Greame Kelley (for- 

 merly editor of "Pacific Dis- 

 covery" magazine) and sec- 

 retary, Mrs. Walter Williams 

 plus one part-time typist, who 

 staff the Western regional of- 

 fice at 1711-A Grove St., 

 Berkeley, from which they 

 manage conservancy affairs 

 in the 13 Western States, Ha- 

 waii and Alaska, included. 



The conservancy's most 

 notable Western — if not na- 

 tional — achievements are the 

 acquisition and holding for the 

 State of California the two 



top-priority tracts of future 

 park land wanted by the State 

 Division of Beaches and 

 Parks. These are the Forest 

 of Nisine Marks, 9,750 acres 

 of mountain and forest in 

 Santa Cruz County which the 

 conservancy purchased in 

 1962 for about one-tenth of its 

 market value through the gen- 

 erosity of the public-spirited 

 owners, the Marks family of 

 Salinas; and the Rancho Mon- 

 tana de Oro, 4,750-acre por- 

 tion of an old Spanish Grant 

 in San Luis Obispo County, 

 with rugged mountains and 

 nearly two miles of rocky 

 ocean shore, which the Con- 

 servancy is holding for the 

 State by means of a Deed of 

 Trust and purchase option. 

 LARGE-SCALE OPERATION 

 Just to top off this record 

 of large-scale operation in the 

 public interest, the Nature 

 Conservancy has, in the first 

 few weeks of 1963, wielded 

 some influence and exerted 

 some leverage to get under 

 way the land acquisition pro- 

 gram for the new Pt. Reyes 

 National Seashore. 



National president this year 



is George L. Collins, retired 

 National Park Service official, 

 of Ross, Marin County. He 

 and a fellow conservancy gov- 

 ernor, Mrs. Richard M. Leon- 

 ard of Berkeley, are in part- 

 nership with Mrs. Russell Var- 

 ian, of the Varian electronics 

 firm, as conservation associ- 

 ates in San Francisco. 



HEADQUARTERS 



The conservancy's Northern 

 California chapter has its 

 headquarters in Berkeley, un- 

 der the chairmanship of Walt 

 Mulbach of the Oakland 

 Schools' natural science 

 teaching staff. 



It was a 6,400-acre virgin 

 Douglas fir and redwood for- 

 est project on the Eel River 

 in Mendocino County, the 

 Northern California Coast 

 Range Preserve, which 

 brought the Nature Conserv- 

 ancy to the West in 1957. 



Some 855 people have con- 

 tributed over $97,000 to the 

 purchase of this land. 



From its minuscule begin- 

 ning effort of 45 years ago 

 under another name, The Na- 

 ture Conservancy has grown 

 to the point where its deter- 

 mined governors, members, 

 and staff — amateurs all in 

 real estate deals — now 

 charge boldly into operations 

 which give cautious business- 

 men pause. Their attitude is 

 that the need to save land is 

 so urgent, the time so short, 

 that the bold imaginative and 

 sometimes unorthodox ap- 

 proach is often the most like- 

 ly to succeed. They are how- 

 ever, always humbly mindful 

 of their role as trustees of 

 other peoples money and land, 

 as they go resolutely on with 

 their do - it - yourself conser- 1 

 vation program. 



Next: Wildlife Refugees 



