T HEY A U.D U0 BO NY BeOC Ls Lae 
was also urged that NAS estab- 
lish an “Environmental Defense 
Fund” to aid legal battles affecting 
conservation. 
A visit to the famed Brigantine 
Wildlife Refuge, first established 
in 1939, was one of the highlights 
of the convention. This 15,000 acre 
site is but 112 miles from New 
York City. Three-quarters of the 
refuge is salt marsh, of a type 
now rapidly disappearing under 
pressure from business interests 
and the U.S. Corps of Army En- 
gineers. Among the thousands of 
birds seen were flights of Black 
Skimmer, Black - Backed Gulls, 
Snowy Egret, Cormorant, Osprey, 
and Avocet. We also saw five 
Brant, the first of the 150,000 
which will soon visit the area. We 
also hiked thru a part of the 
famed Pine Barrens, which covers 
about one-fourth of New Jersey. 
The Illinois Audubon Society ap- 
proved a resolution several months 
ago which urged that Congress set 
aside this huge sand ridge area 
as a national monument. The Pine 
Barrens was recently featured in 
the National Audubon Magazine. 
The move for a national park is 
being sparked by the New Jersey 
Audubon Society. 
After a bus ride of several miles 
down the peninsula known as Long 
Beach — passing one tired shanty 
after another — we finally reached 
Holgate Peninsula, a unit of 256 
acres donated in 1960 to the govern- 
ment as part of Brigantine by the 
National Audubon Society. Local 
residents who have desecrated the 
island, wiping out almost all of the 
natural plants with their cheap 
housing ,set up a howl when they 
learned that the small area was 
being purchased for a wildlife re- 
fuge, citing “loss of taxes.” It is 
a pity, that these untaught citizens 
do not remain in their crowded 
cities, for they appear to have no 
respect for the wide open spaces 
and the seashore they profess to 
love. Their careless, insane build- 
ing has destroyed the charm of 
most of the island. 
Illinois had about 14 persons at 
the convention. It was inspiring 
and sobering. The next one will 
be in April in St. Louis. 
NATURAL RESOURCES COUN- 
CIL OF ILLINOIS: The 14th An- 
nual Conference of the NRCI was 
held at East Bay Camp near Lex- 
ington, Ill., on Oct. 6-7-8. It will 
also be the site of the IAS Camp- 
out in the fall of 1969. Theme of 
the conference was the One Bil- 
lion Dollar Bond issue to be pre- 
sented to the voters of Illinois in 
November of 1968. State Rep. Carl 
Klein explained some of the as- 
pects of the bond issue, while 
Gunnar Peterson of the Open Lands 
Project and Rudy Dorner of the 
Illinois Conservation Department 
explained how it may aid recrea- 
tion and conservation. Peoria in- 
dustrialist John Altofer pointed 
out the need for real effort to 
save more land, and John Kearney 
of the Independent Voters of Illi- 
nois suggested that if Illinois is so 
poor recreation-wise, and if we 
are now suffering serious pollution 
problems, it is because we “get 
the kind of government we de- 
serve.” Kearney said: “There has 
been too much emphasis on differ- 
ences between the needs of the 
urban citizen and the small town 
and urban voter, but all of us need 
clean water, clean air and recrea- 
tion space. The failure to regularly 
