8 TH E iA°U) DU BiO°N 3B Ul lela Te 
more complete report on legislation affecting outdoor conservation as 
recently passed by Congress will appear elsewhere in the Bulletin. 
38345 N. Harding Ave., Chicago 18, Illinois 
fi fi fi 
Conservation and the 84th Congress 
THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION, summarizing the record of the re- 
cently adjourned Congress in regard to conservation legislation, concluded 
that the results were generally good. The only dark spots were termed 
“sins of omission, in failure to face up to certain pressing problems.” 
The following acts were placed on the credit side: 
1. The Soil Bank—Farm Restoration Program, which includes benefits 
to wild life, forests and watersheds, as well as a. supplementary Great 
Plains conservation program. 
2. A new water pollution law, stricter than the last, with provision for 
federal grants to municipalities for the building of sewage treatment plants. 
3. Reform of the outmoded mining laws of 1872, preventing fake mining 
claims on the public lands. 
4. Strengthening of the National Park System by defeat of the Echo 
Park Dam proposal and passage of appropriations to start ‘Mission 66,” 
a ten-year program of improvement of our national parks and monuments. 
5. Reorganization of the Fish and Wildlife Service into two major 
bureaus, one for sports fisheries and wildlife, the other for commercial 
fishing. 
6. Release of $13,500,000 of federal-aid-wildlife funds that had been tied 
up in the treasury for 10 years. 
7. Acceleration of the small watersheds program. 
These were the “problems left unsolved” by the Congress: 
1. Failure to end threats to the National Wildlife Refuges through 
military acquisition, oii development, mining, and other forms of ex- 
ploitation. 
2. Neglect of legislation to control recreational and wildlife resources 
in our National Forests, where increased public camping and other use 
has turned picnic areas and campgrounds into outdoor slums. 
3. Permitting the continuance of subsidies to encourage drainage of 
wetlands. We pay for the development of waterfowl breeding grounds in 
Canada and also pay for destruction of suitable marsh habitat in the 
United States. 
4. Approval of Bruces Eddy Dam on the Clearwater river in Idaho, 
which would have prevented countless salmon from reaching their spawn- 
ing grounds, and would have flooded the wintering range of elk and other 
big game. Fortunately, President Eisenhower prevented this when he 
vetoed the omnibus rivers and harbors bill, which was full of “Pork 
Barrel” projects, but did contain some worth-while conservation measures. 
