fae AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
Pia i NeOsL SetA UD UB:O N °-S.0 CIE TY 
ROOSEVELT ROAD AND LAKE SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO 5, ILL. 
Number 100 December, 1956 
Natural Resources Council of Illinois 
By Mrs. ANNE BAYLESS 
UNANIMOUS EXPRESSIONS IN favor of projects to put all hawks and owls in 
Illinois on the protected list, and to set up a new bipartisan commission to 
operate the State Conservation Department, were among the noteworthy 
accomplishments of the third annual meeting of the Natural Resources 
Council of Illinois at Robert Allerton Park, near Monticello, the week-end 
of Oct. 19-21, 1956. 
It should be emphasized that the Council was not set up to act on legis- 
lative matters or to take specific stands, as this would be contrary to the 
policies of many of the member groups. The Council’s main purpose is to 
provide a forum for the exchange of views on conservation matters and give 
organizations an opportunity to seek support from others on projects in 
which they are interested. 
The votes taken on the hawk and owl bill, which is an Illinois Audubon 
Society project, and on the Conservation Department matter, do not mean 
the Council itself will push these plans. But in the first such show of opinion 
in the Council, all the delegates present voted in favor of recommending to 
their own groups favorable action toward the two proposals. 
The votes were taken after full discussions on both subjects Saturday 
morning. Discussions on the hawk and owl law were moderated by Illinois 
Audubon Society’s fourth vice-president, Elton Fawks. Thomas Scott of the 
Illinois Natural History Survey first presented an excellent talk on preda- 
tion, in which he pointed out how complex a thing predation is — an analy- 
sis of the food predators eat is not enough. Among other thing's to be con- 
sidered are the physical capabilities of the predator, its food preferences, its 
familiarity with its environment, the population mechanics of the animals 
it feeds upon with rise and fall due to factors other than predation, the 
carrying capacity of the land, and so on. 
Scott reported on a study made in New York where the effects on ruffed 
grouse populations were compared between an area where all predators 
were carefully eliminated and a similar area left as it was. Later the situa- 
tion was reversed, with the first area left alone (predators meanwhile hav- 
ing returned) and the second cleared. The conclusion was: “It doesn’t pay; 
it doesn’t even work.” A group that doubted the accuracy of the results then 
conducted similar experiments on islands, to provide a more isolated “labo- 
ratory” for four years. Their conclusions were the same: results did not 
indicate the ruffed grouse population was helped any. 
With this background, Mr. Fawks explained the Illinois Audubon Society’s 
stand that all hawks and owls in Illinois should be protected. The great 
fad) 
