THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill., 60605 
Number 143 September 1967 
TAPE SAINTS SDE IN Re Sy C7] = 
by Raymond Mostek 
Three years ago this month, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law, 
the National Wilderness Preservation Act, one of the foremost triumphs of 
our conservation era. It is far weaker than originally proposed by the 
Wilderness Society (729 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005), but since 
politics is “the art of the possible,’ conservation forces had to be satisfied 
with what they could get through Congress where the western bloc of sena- 
tors and representatives command power far in excess of their numbers. 
It took eight years to persuade Congress to pass the wilderness bill. 
Both the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture 
have issued administrative regulations and guidelines, and the US Forest 
Service and the National Park Service and the National Wildlife Refuge 
agencies have held over 51 hearings on some 60 units of wilderness. These 
public hearings which have been held in 21 states have been well attended 
by interested conservation forces and others. 
Among those of vast importance to those of us who live in the midwest 
were recent hearings concerning the wilderness aspects of Great Smoky 
Mountains National Park, the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin, and the famed 
Canoe Country areas bordering Canada. 
Citizens well qualified in the field of biology, archaeology and related 
fields have conducted field studies and made their reports at these hearings. 
Their statements were impressive. Local study groups have contributed 
enormously to the plans of the various agencies. While citizen groups are 
asking for 350,000 acres of wilderness for the Great Smoky Mountains, 
the National Park Service envisions but 247,000 acres. The agency is under 
pressure to allow construction of a huge, park-splitting highway. Over 
six thousand letters were received on the disappointing proposal to build 
a transmountain highway; 300 witnesses presented oral statements. Op- 
position to the NPS plans was hot and heavy. Over 100 witnesses testified 
in New Jersey over plans to put the Great Swamp National Wildlife 
Refuge under wilderness protection. Over 5,000 letters were received in 
support and they came from 38 states and 8 foreign countries. This was a 
magnificent response, considering that the Port of New York Authority 
is seeking to convert the Great Swamp into another airport. US Senator 
Harrison Williams of New Jersey has recently suggested that part of the 
