8 T HE ASU DU BOONE (BU eel 
will blame predators. No predator will kill off a species, Mohr emphasized. 
Man is to blame in virtually every case. Hunting pressure may have a 
lot to do with it, but the fact that the animal or bird’s cover or its food 
is gone is much more important. 
An instance of this that he mentioned was the disappearance of the 
ruffed grouse from certain areas, because its drumming logs were gone! 
The grouse must have fallen logs on which to drum, among other things, if 
it is to survive. No amount of restocking would be successful in such an 
area. Another instance is the futile attempt often made to restock streams 
with fish. If the stream itself is not favorable for fish life, the restocking 
never will be successful. The stream may lack oxygen; it may be polluted. 
Instead of restocking, or before restocking, the headwaters should have trees 
planted, perhaps; there should be trees along it to shade it and keep the 
water cool; the water should be pure, not polluted with industrial waste 
or sewage; there must be food; all these things must be taken into account. 
In addition to our trips into the field, we had afternoon or evening 
sessions to discuss what we had seen, embellished by motion pictures on 
conservation subjects and talks by Mohr. Everyone took copious notes, and 
the camp gave us some excellent mimeographed forms to use as guides 
should our local organizations be interested in taking up some of the same 
subjects. 
Another field trip took us to a neighboring forest, several miles from 
camp, that is owned jointly by some of the wealthy families in the area 
and which contains a bridle path they use. The camp has been given free 
admission to explore it. A different type of forest from that found inside 
the camp, it produced different plants and animals, and quite a number 
of birds. (Birds are treated as but one phase of the conservation picture, 
and no special emphasis was placed on them.) Some lumbering was done 
in one area of the tract during the war, and that area is slashed and ugly, 
but it had its compensations. 
One of these was a blackberry patch that found room and light to grow 
luxuriantly, and the berries were ripe when we were there. When we could 
be dragged away, we set about computing the ages of some of the big 
trees that are now stumps. We rubbed a soft pencil on a strip of paper 
tacked across the stump, so the rings were reproduced for counting when 
we got back to camp. We computed dry years and wet years by the width 
of the rings. 
Another field trip took us to the shore, at Greenwich Point, a city beach 
for Greenwich residents. We went down to one end where bathers were 
few and where salt marsh and tide pools offered up all kinds of interest- 
ing things — crabs of several kinds, sea anemones, oysters, clams, and 
three fascinating kinds of worms, roundworms, flatworms, and bloodworms. 
These last three were found at another spot where a young boy was dig- 
ging on the tidal flats for bait. There were many others which few of us 
middle-westerners had ever seen. This trip also offered an excellent chance 
to see water birds, including a large number of black-backed gulls, about 
the only species that I had not seen frequently around Chicago. We ended 
