ian ea VU By ONT eB UL DR LilN 
ddition to having 300 nesting species, the area is a major 
ng place along the Gulf Coast for migratory birds. Every 
sr American university has sent repesentatives there for re- 
‘+h... Botanists, zoologists, geneticists, entomologists, tax- 
mists, environmentalists, ALL are concerned about Big 
cket and its value to science. 
In spite of long abuse (game laws not enforced there till 
4). much game survives. In profusion: beaver, mink, otter, 
ia, muskrat, wildcat, fox, wolf, red and gray squirrel, fly- 
squirrel, raccoon, oppossum, alligators along bayous, snakes 
ye thick brush, and an abundance of white-tailed deer in the 
e woods. Jaguars, ocelots, bears and panthers were shot to 
nction —— bears as recently as ten years ago. (Hunters now 
st the thoroughness of their job, having left none of these 
today's game. ) 
By 1938, botanists described the region as consisting of 
million acres, little disturbed as yet by devastating lumber- 
operations and clearing for farms. But in the following 
ry years, lumbering struck hard. The extraordinary size of 
trees has been recognized only recently. In or near the Big 
cket: the world’s largest eastern red cedar, black hickory, 
y, planetree, red bay, yaupon, sparkleberry, common sweet- 
and silverbell. In his recent ‘‘Farewell to Texas,’’ Supreme 
rt Justice William O. Douglas protests that the Big Thicket 
yw reduced to 3000,000 acres, and 1s being dismembered at 
rate of 50 acres per day. Conservationists must work against 
> to save this valuable heritage. It will not be easy. 
Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough is heroically trying to 
75,000 acres as a national park. Justice Douglas and a 
ip from the Department of the Interior, on their exploration 
ugh the Big Thicket, saw that lumber interests had chopped 
nagnolias in sight of the lumber ‘‘push’’ roads and left most 
hem lying where they fell. One company cut the entire beech 
yds that the Department of Interior had included in the pro- 
d National Park. Another lumber company plans to fell 
irgin pine woods. Opposing interests to the park deliberately 
yed with insecticides the heronry, killing all 300 herons 
young except three. A 1,000-year-old magnolia was bored 
ve places and killed with arsenate of lead. 
Meanwhile, in the depths of the lush, wet cypress swamps, 
wild green forest solitudes of historic trees, the Ivory-Buills 
imer nervously on giant trees, warning that time is short. 
s fabulous area must be preserved as a National Park for its 
itific, educational, historic and aesthetic values, as part of 
National outdoor legacy from far greater days. 
— | 9 Villatkd.» Addison 
