ee tves AS UU BO UNS BU bri BEL N 13 
WARBLER DECLINE: Records on the Eastern Seaboard show the smallest 
migration of Myrtle Warblers in years. This might have resulted from 
adverse weather conditions, but perhaps many have been killed by search 
lights and tall buildings. We wonder also if insecticide sprays do not ac- 
eount for some of the decrease. 
LooKING BACKWARD: It is easy for us to see why erroneous ideas about the 
treasures of the earth were almost universal in colonial times. The pioneers 
never realized that the great forests could possibly be used up, when they 
were a handful of lonely people in a vast continent so smothered with trees 
that it was necessary to cut them down to get sunlight. For the sake of 
ourselves and our descendants, we must not make the same mistakes, We 
ean no longer believe that what man consumes, nature will replenish. 
COMEBACK OF THE TURKEY: In the Shawnee National Forest in southern 
Illinois the Conservation Department is experimenting with restoration of 
the turkey. In Outdoors in Illinois Mr. William H. Casey, game biologist, 
said that the reason for the disappearance of the turkey in Illinois was the 
destruction of too much forest. This destruction has been going on since 
the first influx of settlers about 1800. Mr. Casey wrote that the native 
turkey has been extinct since the last one was felled by a poacher’s bullet 
in Union County. 
POLLUTION CONTROLLED: Is Public Law 660 a success? According to state 
and municipality figures, yes. Four years ago, fifty Chicago conservationists 
— the Cook County Clean Streams Committee — decided that pollution 
was damaging one of the county’s top recreational assets, the 42,000-acre 
Forest Preserve District. Through it flow 125 miles of streams. In one area 
the pollution was so bad that a girl scout troop had to be inoculated against 
typhoid before taking a canoe trip. Largely through the Committee’s efforts, 
25 new disposal plants have been built and 40 miles of befouled streams 
have been greatly improved. 
SMALL Zoo PLANNED: Recently the DuPage County Forest Preserve Com- 
mission authorized its Conservation Committee to investigate the possibility 
of erecting a structure in the Willow Brook Forest Preserve, south of Glen 
Ellyn, Illinois, to be used as a small zoo. The preserve is being used as a 
bird sanctuary at present. The Commission also approved the hiring of 
Mr. Richard B. Hoger of Westmont as caretaker of the preserve. Mr. Hoger, 
who is well known for the many birds and wild animals he has nursed 
back to health at his home, is an excellent choice. 
CONSERVATION AWARENESS: Only recently has conservation been recognized 
as a need by the schools, Boy Scouts, 4-H Clubs, and so on. We cannot stop 
the population influx into rural areas today, or the housing projects that 
are so rapidly covering our prairies and other wildlife habitats. We must 
take steps now to preserve areas for our native animals and birds if we 
wish them to remain. This may mean writing to our Senators and Congress- 
men once in a while to pass certain bills. But we will have to work today 
for conservation of our forests, prairies, swamps, and streams if we want 
to enjoy the bluebird, the tanager, and other songbirds tomorrow. 
323 West Wesley St., Wheaton 
