THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill. 60605 
Number 134 June 1965 
The President's Page 
By Raymond Mostek 
Green Areas for Illinois Now — G-A-I-N. This organization, newly formed, 
is designed to fill two purposes — to educate Illinois citizens to the need 
for more recreation and wildlife areas, and to obtain passage of a $100,000,000 
bond issue, in the present State Assembly, for approval by Illinois voters 
in the fall of 1966. After these two objectives are reached, GAIN will fade 
into obscurity, but it will be well remembered, and its deeds will be deeply 
appreciated by coming generations. 
Conservation Director William Lodge has pointed out in scores of talks 
that Illinois has less state land for recreation per capita than any other 
state in the union, save one, and that one, a Western state, has huge federal 
land holdings. 
It is not difficult to understand the many reasons for this. Our state, 
one of the most affluent, now ranks fourth in terms of population; by 1970 
the U.S. Bureau of Census predicts that Illinois will rank sixth. There has 
been a long feud between Cook County and Downstate; the State Legislature 
has not been really re-apportioned since 1901, despite a weak amendment 
passed in the last decade. Rural legislators, with much “open space” about 
them, never adequately see the needs of an urban population. Neither 
political party, as recently as the election of 1964, has adopted a strong, 
vigorous outdoor recreation program, despite pleas for such platforms by 
Several conservation groups. 
Most of the outdoor conservation clubs in Illinois have themselves been 
a monument to inadequacy; their newsletters have too long refiected mere 
membership gossip and their meetings mere conversation; their field trips 
have led to no adequate action to preserve the sights their eyes feasted upon; 
many groups were until recently hostile to each other, and there was little 
cooperation. For many years, Illinois citizens were led to believe that there 
were few areas in Illinois worthy of preservation, and that ours was merely 
corn and soybean country. We know that such statements are wholly in- 
accurate. Recent studies by The Nature Conservancy and other groups 1n- 
dicate that there are many areas which should have been saved generations 
ago. We still have but ten county forest preserve districts despite enabling 
legislation a half-century old. 
Director Lodge has pointed to these figures: Illinois has 14 acres of 
park and recreation land per thousand persons; Ohio has 63 per thousand; 
Kentucky, 68 acres per thousand; Iowa has 103 per thousand and Indiana 
has 136 per thousand. We cannot compare our state with Wisconsin, which 
has a different topography, but which has 858 park acres per thousand 
persons. Four years ago, only 8,300,000 persons visitited Illinois parks; in 
1964, almost 16,000,000 persons attended. There were 1,750,000 campers in 
1960; last year there were 4,500,000. Mr. Lodge has pointed out that the 
