14 THE A UD UB OSN¢*BeU Dore 
THE VALUE OF NATURE AREAS IN THE 
TEACHING OF BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION 
By J. W. GALBREATH 
LEADING EDUCATORS, BIOLOGISTS AND CONSERVATIONISTS often point out that 
many of our new schools are built in areas where native flora and fauna 
abound, yet too many campuses wind up as ecological deserts. The greatest 
enemies of nature today are the bulldozer, the chain-saw, and the asphalt 
spreader. Many new high schools all over the state, with modern buildings 
and a campus of 20 or 80 acres, ignore the ever-increasing need for an out- 
door laboratory. Thousands of dollars are spent for landscaping, gardening, 
terracing, etc., but fitting the whole into the native landscape is ignored. 
Many fine trees are destroyed needlessly. Natural swamps are filled or 
drained; hills are leveled. Why not set aside small plots of native landscape 
as part of our educational opportunity and American heritage for the boys 
and girls of our communities? 
Perhaps some of our nature groups — bird clubs, garden clubs, Kiwanis, 
the Illinois Audubon Society — could sponsor local nature areas under the 
supervision of the local biology department. Recommendations to the State 
Department of Public Instruction and local boards of education would be 
of value. Tomorrow’s available areas may be destroyed unless action is 
taken now. 
Basically we are all interested in our natural environment. There has 
been an enormous increase in recent years in the people who wish to see for 
themselves the wonders of nature. There has also been a steady increase in 
the nature lover who appreciates and enjoys the out-of-doors. The National 
Park Service, the Forest Service, state parks and like agencies have found 
an increased demand for guided nature tours. Some aspects are recreational 
— enjoyment comes through participation in hunting, fishing, and camping; 
others are aesthetic — appreciation of the beauty of nature, and reverence 
for the wonders of God’s great out-of-doors. 
While there is a growing sense of the interrelation of all physical and 
biological factors in our environment, there is also a growing concern over 
man’s ecology. Building roads, cutting forests, grazing mountain ranges, 
mining mountains, polluting water, eliminating predators, modernizing our 
remaining wilderness areas, tramping over, defacing and littering our 
picnic grounds — all have their chain reactions. Problems have arisen from 
such misuse of the land, and these problems involve the principles of con- 
servation. Man must understand nature’s basic laws. These principles do not 
involve a few people; they affect all of us and develop into a threat to our 
way of life. 
There is no dearth of good teaching material in biology, conservation, 
and nature study. Often the problem is, which method is most effective, in 
the all-too-crowded science course, where time is our most precious element. 
Perhaps we have all been guilty of skimming through the mass of subject 
matter in the required time. In our effort to cover the basic course, we often 
