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FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 1920 
FOREST^ STREAM 
FORTY-NINTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, New York, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3rd, Washington, D. C. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Associate Editor 
TOM WOOD, Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
HARDING’S STAND ON NATIONAL PARKS 
T HE preservation of the national playgrounds 
with their natural beauties and wonders is ot 
concern to all of us. The final decision of what 
shall be done about them will rest with Federal 
officials and legislators. Those interested in these 
national playgrounds very naturally wish to know 
something as to the attitude held toward them by 
the President-elect. Inquiry on this point was re- 
cently made of Senator Harding, whose assistance 
in passing the bill establishing the Mt. McKinley 
Park has not been forgotten. He expressed him- 
self as in favor of a policy which will guard the 
integrity of our national parks, protecting these 
playgrounds for the purposes for which they were 
reserved. He has also, in response to inquiries by 
the National Association of Audubon Societies, de- 
clared himself in favor of protecting our bird res- 
ervations, and it is high time that this point be 
taken up, since efforts — in two or three cases suc- 
cessful — have been made to destroy these. 
To this country the bird reservations have far 
more than a sentimental value. They are economi- 
cally important because they constitute refuges 
that in many cases are breeding places for birds 
which, sooner or later and at one time or another, 
are useful to man, whether by destroying nox- 
ious animal and vegetable life or dead matter that 
may become harmful. Incidentally, of course, the 
birds which inhabit these reservations are beauti- 
ful to look at, and perform also a useful function, 
tempting many people abroad to the wholesome 
outdoor life of the field sportsman. 
It is most gratifying to know Senator Harding’s 
sound views on a subject which is constantly be- 
coming more and more important to the country 
at large. 
DESTROYING OUR PROPERTY 
A MERICANS are notoriously the most wasteful 
^ of people, and within the past few years their 
wastefulness has been multiplied by many times. 
Some of this carelessness for the future must end 
before very long, if the hard times which are pre- 
dicted actually come to pass. A resource of great 
importance, constantly being wasted and whose 
value our heedlessness is reducing year by year, 
is the potential product of the waters — of our shores 
and streams and lakes. 
In the days of the first settlement of the country 
its fisheries were of great importance, for on them 
the early settlers depended in large part for their 
food. In all the rivers there, were shad, salmon, 
trout, eels, and many other fish, and at certain sea- 
sons of the year these not only fed the people who 
lived near the banks of the streams where the fish 
were taken, but supplied also many others who 
came from a distance to procure a supply of fish, 
which they dried or salted and took away for use 
during the winter. 
Civilization — like life — cannot exist without 
water; the sea, the lakes, the streams and the 
marshes touch every aspect of human life. Much 
has been said and written and many laws have been 
enacted about the care of water for drinking and 
for domestic purposes, but little thought has been 
given to protecting the life — the animals and plants 
— which lives in and is supported by these waters. 
Yet directly and indirectly these animals and plants 
perform important functions for man. Some of 
the life furnishes him food — the fish, some of the 
reptiles, and the shell-fish — and for various pur- 
poses he uses the birds and the mammals that fre- 
quent the waters. The plants furnish food for 
fishes, birds and mammals, and the shrubs and trees 
that grow along the shores protect different forms 
of animal life. 
Here in America we use our streams as sewers 
to carry away the waste of manufactories and of 
cities, and this use is incompatible with the con- 
tinuance of the useful life of the waters. 
Besides this, every man is anxious to secure for 
himself as quickly as possible all that the water 
produces, and the fish are caught without the slight- 
est regard for the continuation of the species. As 
a result of these courses the shad and the salmon 
are greatly reduced in all Atlantic streams — or are 
absent from them; and the salmon on the Pacific, 
from Alaska to Oregon, have been so depleted in 
numbers that but few reach the upper waters of 
the streams to reproduce their kind. Even the 
breeding stations of the Fish Commission cannot 
secure enough eggs for artificial hatching. 
In some of our more important streams the fish 
have been absolutely barred from reaching their 
spawning ground by the erection of dams without 
fishways, and these impassible walls put an end 
to reproduction and in a few years exterminate in 
that stream fish which were once abundant. 
Forest and Stream has called public attention 
to the matter of stream pollution and dams without 
fishways for many years, yet very little is done 
about it that is intelligent or effective. One won- 
ders how much longer the work of destruction 
must go on and how long it will be before the people 
of the United States -shall apply to the product of 
their streams the keen business sense with which 
they are usually credited. 
We should not continue to destroy our property. 
GOOD WORK IN IOWA 
A FINE area, about fourteen hundred acres in 
extent, near Kesaukua, Iowa, was set aside 
and dedicated as a preserve and park by the Iowa 
Game Commission, October 27, 1920. The Iowa 
Commission is to be warmly congratulated on its- 
