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CONSERVATION AT THE CAPITOL 
By Betty Groth 
AT THE STATE CAPITOL in Sprinfield, the following conservation meas- 
ures hang in the balance. Their fate, and the fate of open spaces, wild- 
life, and natural areas in Illinois, depend on our Legislature and on your 
response as a citizen and a member of the Illinois Audubon Society. 
House Bill 723 — Controls, by licensing and regulation, the custom applica- 
tion of pesticides. Deserves your earnest support. 
House Bill 724 — Creates and empowers an advisory board to direct the use 
of pesticides by state and federal agencies on state-controlled, county, 
and municipal property. Membership would include representatives of 
the State Departments of Agriculture, Conservation, Public Health, and 
such others as the General Assembly deems necessary. Also worth while. 
House Bill 584 — Would permit hunting in State Parks under the control 
of the Department of Conservation. This proposal is as dangerous to 
human life is it is to wildlife,, especially in view of the heavy over- 
crowding of our parks. Opposed by the I.A.S., the Illinois Federation 
of Sportsmen’s Clubs, and many other conservation groups. 
House Bill 596 — Prevents the sale of birds, fish, and other household pets 
in dime stores, drug stores, and department stores. Limits such sales to 
organizations and persons whose principal business is the care, training, 
keeping, breeding, and selling of household pets. A sensible and humane 
limitation. 
Hcuse Bill 717 — Creates a nonpartisan Conservation Board to direct the 
Department of Conservation. This does not reflect on the many capable, 
dedicated workers in the Department, but on the political patronage 
system which now hampers its efficiency. The Board will not be subject 
to change with each new administration, but will be free to develop 
long-range plans. 
Senate Bill 579 — THE NATURE PRESERVES BILL — establishes a state 
system of nature preserves and a guiding commission. Representatives 
of the Illinois Department of Conservation, Natural History Survey, and 
Illinois State Museum would serve as advisors to the commission, which 
would have the power to acquire nature areas, to maintain registries 
of nature preserves, and to aid in the protection of natural conditions and 
scientific areas other than in nature preserves. THIS BILL WAS OK’D 
MAY 8TH by the Senate Conservation Committee, with two minor 
amendments. One permits the Director of the Department of Conserva- 
tion to give prior approval to the acquisition of a nature area, to ‘assure 
that such areas are of high quality. After passage by the Senate, the 
bill must still meet the approval of the House and the Governor — and 
the Citizen’s Committee for Nature Conservation urges everyone to 
write NOW to his state representative and to Governor Kerner at the 
State Capitol Building in Springfield. SB 579 has the support of every 
major conservation group in the state. 
Senate Bill 574-577 — Permits a cigarette tax which would finance an Out- 
door Recreational and Development Fund, enabling the Conservation 
Department to buy new State Park areas. This measure has been most 
successful in Wisconsin and is urgently needed here, as Illinois is 
woefully poor in park areas. 
