6 TéH*R -A’U.D/U'B ON BU Leite ere 
This Decade's Great 'Grass Roots’ Movement: 
THE COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT 
The Conservaticn District Act was approved in August, 1963. It is similar in many 
respects to the old Forest Preserve District law passed by the Illinois General Assembly 
more than a half century ago. Less than a dozen counties have established a local 
forest preserve district. The Conservation District Act is far more comprehensive, and 
is not applicable in counties already having a Forest Preserve District. Copies of this 
article now are available for free distribution to conservation and civic clubs in 
order to stimulate more interest in the 1963 Act. 
—Raymond Mostek, President, Iilincis Audubon Society 
by O.T. BANTON 
A “green areas” development program that is being hailed by some Audu- 
bon leaders as the greatest grass roots conservation movement in several 
generations is just starting to take hold in Illinois. It spilled over from the 
neighboring state of Iowa. 
In the November 8th election, three Illinois counties — Macon, LaSalle 
and Putnam — voted to form County Conservation Districts. Vermilion 
county voters approved such a referendum nearly a year ago, and Boone 
county was the first in 1964. Ninety-one of Iowa’s 99 counties have such 
districts; in 83, the programs are in operation, some dating back to 1957. 
In eight Iowa counties the referenda were approved in the September and 
November elections of last year. 
The Illinois law authorizing creation of such districts, passed by the 
legislature in 1963 and patterned almost identically after an Iowa law 
passed in 1955, provides for public acquisition of scenic and historic sites 
and their development for recreational and educational uses. 
A quick understanding of what this legislation makes possible can be 
had by taking a glance at what Iowa has done. More than 400 parks and 
recreation areas, comprising nearly 25,000 acres, have been acquired through 
gift or purchase by the county conservation boards, and a management pro- 
gram set up that will preserve these historic and natural beauty areas for 
public use for all time. 
The sites include 162 county parks — ranging in size from a few acres 
to 2,000 acres — 121 river access points where fishing and other water 
sports are made possible to the public; 78 wildlife areas; 52 roadside parks 
or rest areas; 12 historical areas, 17 forest areas; 9 fishing lakes; 9 re- 
creational areas; 6 outdoor classrooms, and 2 botannical preserves. 
Many of the sites are being used to some extent as outdoor classrooms, 
and this is said to be growing as more teachers recognize the possibilities 
for taking their students direct to animal and plant life to augment what 
they can teach from textbooks. Children also are being brought into the 
conservation program through use of Boy and Girl Scouts to do much of 
the tree planting in reforestation work at many of the open space areas. 
The conservation districts are administered by five-member boards 
appointed on a staggered basis to five-year terms by the chairmen of the 
county boards of supervisors. In Illinois these boards have direct taxing 
powers, with a lmit of one mill, or 10 cents on each $100 of assessed 
valuation. The Iowa districts operate under the same one mill limit, but 
the district boards have to get county board approval before their levies 
can be placed on the tax lists. 
