Peete ee eo rOuNe oO Url mel. le 3 
NOTES FROM THE NEST 
Great Swamp National Wildiife Refuge in Morris County, New Jersey, 
was dedicated recently by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. ‘this 
wilderness marshland is only thirty miles from Times Square in New 
York City. Over one million dollars were contributed by 6,100 individuals 
and 462 organizations, industries, and foundations from 269 towns, and 29 
states to preserve the swamp ... The John Pennekamp Coral Reef Under- 
sea State Park, fifty miles from Miami, preserves over 75 square miles of 
staghorn coral, seafan growths and other unusual sights ... The brown 
bears in the Auruzzo National Park in the Apennine hill country of Italy 
are flourishing once more. When the park was first established in 1951, 
there were but 15 of them. Now, under careful protection, the bears have 
increased to 75 ... Switzerland has re-introduced three animals into the 
canton of Neuchatel — beaver, roe deer, and the chamois, the latter now 
numbering over 200 ... The reclamation of the Sahara Desert is one of 
the greatest reclamation projects ever undertaken by man. The area is 
one and one-half times the size of Australia. The Sahara Reclamation Pro- 
gram seeks to establish headquarters in Morocco for a new world university 
where all phases of ecology will be studied and taught .. . If you are 
interested in spending your next vacation on a farm, write to Farm Vaca- 
tions and Holidays, Inc., 36 East 57th St., New York 22, N. Y. A directory 
is available for 50c a copy ... Parks actually help to reduce taxes, not 
increase them. Residents of a small town in New York learned that a pro- 
posal to convert 1,426 acres into a park would raise the tax rate from 
$14.33 to $16.91. The same study also showed that if homes in the $35,000 
class were built on a minimum of two-acre plots, the tax rate would in- 
crease to $21.64... A Japanese industrialist, Soichiro Ohara, was so in- 
spired by three trips to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania that he worked 
to obtain a bird refuge in Japan. Nineteen of our states now protect all 
hawks at all times, and only four fail to protect any of them . . . According 
to a recent census by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Graber of the Natural History 
Survey, Redwinged Blackbirds are up from 5 million in 1907 to over 11 
million. The Horned Lark has increased from 1.5 million in 1909 to 5 
million in 1958. Redwings have been most adaptable, learning to reside 
on farm lands as the swamps and marshes have been wiped out... One 
of the best books written recently on the problem of open space is Edward 
Higbee’s “The Squeeze: Cities Without Space.” As America becomes more 
urbanized, books such as this one take on increasing importance ... 
Insurance investigators estimate that nearly 1,000 persons are killed on 
the highways each year trying to dodge litter. More money is spent on 
cleaning up litter than we spend on the United Nations ... A suit has 
been filed to save 194 acres of submerged land reaching from 79th street 
to 85th street on the Chicago lakefront. The land was “donated” to the 
U. S. Steel company by the Illinois State Legislature in 1963. The Illinois 
Federation of Sportsmen Clubs is interested in the situation . . . Illinois 
Beach State Park had a resident naturalist last summer. The placement 
came after many pleas by outdoor conservation forces to the Illinois De- 
partment of Conservation. Roger Gustafson, the naturalist, made a host 
of friends during his short tour of duty. 
615 Rochdale Circle, Lombard, III. 
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