ee SN Our > AU Dw B Oy NeeB UL lek TaN 9 
The University of Illinois College of Agricultural Pesticides and Pest 
Control Systems Task Group is discussiing the possibility of expanding re- 
search programs developing integrated pest management systems. Inves- 
tigations of songbirds will be included in the program to determine their 
potential as natural pest management agents. If a given species is found to 
have a significant impact on agricultural pests, habitat management prac- 
tices to maximize that effect will be incorporated into the general pest con- 
trol programs. These practices would undoubtedly increase the available 
optimal habitat for songbirds in agricultural regions. Such an increase in 
optimal habitats would increase the numbers of other songbirds utilizing 
similar habitats as well as those of the managed species. The greater num- 
bers of song birds would therefore make them more available for aesthetic 
purposes and for the enjoyment of amateur and professional ornithologists. 
Members of the Illinois Audubon Society can make a significant con- 
tribution to this research program by assisting in the identification of those 
species of birds that are potential natural agricultural pest management 
agents. They can do so by making the following observations concerning 
songbird populations and distributions: (1) presence and numbers of song- 
birds utilizing fencerows and roadsides with various vegetation types, and 
(2) foraging areas of fencerow and roadside residents. By providing such 
information to the pest management program, it would save us considerable 
expense and effort in conducting preliminary studies. We could then con- 
centrate our efforts on those species with greatest potential as pest man- 
agement agents. 
Anyone interested in cooperating in such an endeavor should contact me 
immediately. I will provide the necessary information concerning the 
method of recording observations and appropriate forms to ensure standard- 
ization of the data. I hope many of the members will be willing to cooperate 
in this program. To do so will offer ornithologists the opportunity to make 
a significant contribution to the development of natural pest management 
programs, and the eventual reduction in the use of chemical pesticides and 
a resulting decrease in environmental contamination. 
Anyone sufficiently interested in the program to contribute to the finan- 
cial support of the research should also contact me for details as to ways in 
which this can be accomplished. Funds to support this aspect of the ongoing 
research program are extremely limited; any contribution to the program 
would greatly speed up the progress of the research. Arrangements have 
been made with the Univesity of Illinois Foundation to handle such financial 
support. 
The consummate offense to wildlife is not hunting, but the extirpa- 
tion of species by an indifferent technology in which wildlife is 
wiped out—not by man’s passion—but by his single-minded devo- 
tion to a material world in which wild creatures have no place. 
John Madson and C. H. D. Clarke (Waterfow! Tomorrow) 
