THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill. 60605 
Number 135 September 1965 
The President's Page 
By Raymond Mostek 
Population Pressures and Conservation: One of the most encouraging de- 
velopments of the past few months has been the willingness of major out- 
door conservation organizations to examine the impact of our exploding 
population on land, water, wildlife and forest resources. 
More words have been written about the population explosion within 
the past five years than in the preceding 45. Margaret Sanger in 1915 
began her vigorous campaign of education to support population planning. 
It is heartening to find more and more conservationists openly expressing 
their dismay over the population boom as they once did over the hunter 
and the poacher. 
Figures on population growth are impressive. “It took from the dawn 
of history to 1830 for world population to reach one billion. The second 
billion was reached within the next century, but only 31 more years to reach 
the third billion. It will take but 15 years at present growth rates to reach 
four billion, ten years more to reach five billion. Within the lifetime of 
many of us, and before this century ends, the world may have a population 
of over six billion human beings.” 
The United States, with merely 125,000,000 around 1930, now numbers 
192,000,000 in 1965, and is expected to exceed 300,000,000 by the end of the 
century. Many major books have been written on the subject. We have 
no space to comment on the social, religious, economic and political factors 
involved except to state that all ancient beliefs are staggering under the 
impact of new facts as they are announced by the press, radio, television, 
and conferences. 
Far too little has been said of the effect that uncontrolled population 
has on the crowded landscape, on endangering wildlife, on outdoor recrea- 
tion, on the dignity of man and his political freedoms. Many civic and 
conservation groups are already correcting this oversight. 
At a recent panel discussion before the Chicago Council of the American 
Youth Hostels, I observed that no present day voyageur into the Quetico- 
Superior Canoe Country will be able to enjoy the same wilderness values 
that I found in 1948. The reason is simple: more canoeists now fill the area, 
and many more camp sites are found on a lake which formerly held but 
one or two. Campgrounds in many state and national parks are not only 
filled by noon, but there is more regimentation. Regulations not only forbid 
late arrivals, but soon the evening camper may even be denied entrance 
to the park because the gates may be closed. 
In Great Britain, 72% of the holiday makers in 1962 flocked to the 
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