12 T HBA U DU BtON; BUD aa 
Conservation News and Notes 
By LeRoy TUNSTALL 
VACATION Days ARE over for most of us, but we have memories of out- 
door holidays to remember the summer by. My vacation was spent back in 
the hills of Pennsylvania in my old home town at the gateway to the Al- 
legheny National Forest. As conservation chairman and a lover of nature 
I would like to share some of the interesting areas with others who are 
concerned with nature and natural resources. 
We visited the Kinzua Valley of the Allegheny at Devil’s Elbow, a 
scenic area enjoyed by many each year. Sad to say, the government is con- 
sidering construction of a dam that would cover this valley and dispossess 
many people who have made their homes here. 
Letchworth State Park near Buffalo, New York, a beautiful area known 
as the Grand Canyon of the East, was also a sight to be remembered. 
Waterfalls, canyons, and birds in abundance made this a haven for nature 
lovers. In the Allegheny National Forest we were often forced to slow down 
for a deer crossing the road. I heard that the wild turkey is now abundant 
enough to permit an open season for hunting. On our way through Ohio 
we noticed many quail on the highways, and we were told that it was just 
recently that the quail have started to come back in this area. 
ft ff St 
THE FIRST SESSION of the 85th Congress, in spite of strong “economy” op- 
position, enacted some outstanding conservation measures. The most notable 
of these were the granting of funds to start a five-year program of improv- 
ing public recreational facilities in our National Forests, and the voting 
of appropriations for control of water pollution. 
In an action that seemed to surprise both proponents and opponents, the 
Senate voted on June 21 to pass S-555, the bill authorizing the Bureau of 
Reclamation to construct a high dam at Hells Canyon on the Snake River, 
near the boundary between Idaho and Oregon. The vote was 45 to 38; a 
similar bill was defeated in the Senate last year by almost the same margin. 
Hells Canyon is above the mouth of the Salmon River. While a dam there 
would flood a spectacular section of the deepest river gorge in North 
America, the fisheries and wildlife values that would be lost are minor com- 
pared to those of the Salmon and Clearwater rivers. 
Another conservation victory came on August 13, when the House of 
Representatives voted 363 to 23 to deny an appropriation of $500,000 for 
advance engineering planning for the proposed Bruces Eddy dam on the 
north fork of the Clearwater River. Wildlife groups have asked that the 
Clearwater dam be neither authorized nor started until current government 
studies are completed to show what the effect of this dam might be on 
migratory fish runs and the winter feeding ranges of big game. The study 
should be completed in about 18 months. Proponents of the dam, probably 
fearful of what the study may disclose, have been trying desperately to 
get the project started at once. The attempt to slip through an appropria- 
tion for engineering design funds was the latest device to be defeated. 
