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NEWS OF CHAPTERS AND AFFILIATES 
The newly organized Fort Chartres Chapter has 24 members from Randolph, Monroe, Perry and St. Clair Counties in the 
southwestern part of the state. At the first meeting a slide show of flowers was presented by Dr. Roger Anderson, botany 
professor at S.1.U. 
Another new chapter, the Southern Illinois Chapter, which has its headquarters in the Carbondale area, has had several 
successful field trips. Among these was a spring wildflower tour, for which over 80 people turned out. 
The Springfield Audubon Society (affiliate) reports that its membership is at an all-time high, 235. This April, the group 
sponsored a “‘get away from it all’’ weekend at East Bay Camp in Bloomington. 
The Cardinal Audubon Club of Bloomington (affilate) participated in Earth Day at Illinois State University and had a 
booth for the distribution of educational literature. There was also an eye-catching display called ‘“‘The Ever Bloomin’ Idiot 
Tree”, which was a small sapling hung with discarded trash; it bore the name “‘Beerus Canus Discardus”’. 
82 SPECIES SIGHTED ON FIELD TRIPS 
The three groups which participated in the Sunday field trip at Edwardsville on May 3 reported a total count of 82. The 
Pere Marquette group saw 60 species; the Cahokia Mounds group saw 47, and the Principia College group identified 42 
species. The groups counted 10 species of warblers. 
SEND A DOLLAR TO SAVE A PRAIRIE 
A group of dedicated conservationists has spent $1,500 for fencing material to protect Vermont Cemetery Prairie 
from misuse and vandalism. Although the prairie is less than one acre in size it contains 80 species of prairie plants 
which provided the seed for Morton Arboretum’s prairie restoration project. 
All labor for the erection of the protective fence is being donated by members of the Sierra Club and other groups. 
If you would like to help pay for the fence, send your dollar to: A Buck for the Prairie, % Gene Small, 5116 N. 
Newland Avenue, Chicago, IIlinois 60656. 

ARE ORIOLES DISAPPEARING ALONG WITH OUR ELMS? 
Cornell University ornithologists think that Dutch elm disease may be robbing the northeast of more than trees -- it may 
be driving Baltimore Orioles from the region. 
Olin S. Pettingill Jr., director of Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology, in Ithaca, New York, said the bird shows a distinct 
preference for nesting in American elms. 
“The long, drooping lower branches of these trees provide at their tips the optimum sites so markedly suited to the orioles’ 
inherent skill in nest construction and inclination for predator-free situations,’’ Pettingill said. ‘‘Now that the Dutch elm 
disease is destroying so many of these trees, we wonder what effect, if any, will be on the population of Baltimore Orioles.” 
Pettingill said birdwatchers living in an area that has suffered the loss of elms can help the laboratory determine if 
Baltimore Orioles are discouraged from the region by comparing the number of birds they hear singing this breeding season 
with those they heard in years before the elm trees died. 
“Next fall,’’ he said, ‘‘after the leaves have fallen, scan the trees for nests. Then send us your report.” 

