8 Tao BE oCASU LD UB °OUN@ BeU. is lel ees 
THE VALUE OF PRAIRIE CHICKEN SANCTUARIES 
By J. W. Galbreath 
1. Sanctuaries preserve for posterity a segment of our rich wildlife heritage 
and thereby benefit local residents. 
2. Sancturies bring revenue into a community through the sale of food, 
lodging, and automobile service to those who visit the Sanctuary during 
the year. In 1963 approximately 300 persons observed the colorful court- 
ship ceremony of the Prairie Chicken on the booming grounds. Twice 
each year the management group meets at the Sanctuary and patronizes 
local restaurants. 
3. Sanctuary lands restrict production of surplus commodities (corn, beans, 
wheat) from the market, thus improving the farmer’s price for crops. 
4. Sanctuaries provide areas for technical research which may improve 
the future welfare and happiness of all people. “There is only one biology.” 
Recent research at the University of Illinois on insects has provided 
solutions to general problems of nutrition and psychology. We do not begin 
to know or understand the value of each living species. 
5. Open lands restore ground water to the water table, thus making it 
available to rural areas who depend upon wells for their water supply. 
6. Sanctuary lands are taxed, as are any other lands; the revenue goes 
into local county funds for roads, schools, and other community services. 
7. Many people have the erroneous opinion that if you can’t eat it, wear 
it. or sell it for cash, a resource is of no value. Wildlife has played a vital 
part in our rich American heritage. Extinction of a species robs future 
generations of their birthright. Wilderness has formed a background for 
our American history. When the wild areas are gone, man will lose for- 
ever a valuable part of himself. We will then be poor indeed. 
8. Never before has man held the power over his environment that he 
holds today. Destruction is streamlined. Grasslands are plowed, fence 
rows are grubbed out, woodlands disappear before the bulldozer and chain 
saw, freeways replace wide-open spaces with concrete and asphalt. Popula- 
tion expansion is wiping out the last frontier. Suburbia mushrooms into 
the countryside, and local flora and fauna disappear from the landscape. 
Are we so greedy in America that we cannot afford to save little islands 
of green space here and there to break the dull monotony of man-made 
sameness? 
It has been said by some that Illinois, historically a prairie state of 
waving blue stem and abundant wildlife. does not have a wildlife heritage. 
I sincerely believe this is our greatest need. We must create a conservation 
ethic. Public opinion today will determine what kind of a world our 
children will inherit. Are we willing to pay the price today to prevent 
our native Prairie Grouse from joining the extinct Passenger Pigeon? 
Prairie Chickens have demonstrated a tenacious will to live. They 
typify the spirit of freedom. of the open prairie, demonstrating their vitality 
each spring in the colorful breeding ceremonial ritual, which beats in 
harmony with the spirit of Nature. If this voice of the open plains is per- 
mitted to fade forever from the horizon, then all mankind is poorer, destitute 
of what might have been, had man been a little less greedy, a little more 
concerned about his future wildlife legacy. 
