6 2) HR ASU. DUP BrOUNG Bayes eee 
Conservation News and Notes 
By RAYMOND MOSTEK 
THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE of the Department of Interior has 
authorized state game administrators in Missouri and Illinois to increase the 
season on mourning doves from 30 to 35 consecutive full days... Botulism 
has been a major cause of waterfowl losses for over 50 years. It has been 
known that over 300,000 ducks have died in a single season in one location. 
No one seems to know how many ducks have died of this disease. It has 
been recommended that the Fish and Wildlife Service place the finding of 
a solution to botulism poisoning at the top of their research program. 
One of the amendments to the recently revised Atomic Energy Act pro- 
vided for the protection of our National Parks, monuments and wildlife 
refuges. No leases or permits will be granted for mineral exploration in 
such areas ex¢ept in cases of national emergency. Bills will be introduced 
into the new session of Congress to earmark not less than 40 per cent of 
receipts from the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act for the acquisition 
of refuge areas. 
The Colorado Game and Fish Commission has set aside an area on top 
of the continental divide .as a grizzly bear refuge. Such action to preserve 
this fine animal from extinction deserves high praise. In recent action, 
Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay raised admission rates to several 
National Parks. This would be useful only if the increased funds thus col- 
lected were turned back to the National Park Service. At present all funds 
collected at our parks go to Congress. . . The defeat of the Baker bill in 
Congress was a serious blow to the U.S. Forest Service. It now has almost 
no funds ‘for adequate wildlife protection and badly needed expansion of 
recreational facilities. 
The defeat of the proposed Echo Park Dam in Dinosaur National Monu- 
ment was not the only victory of conservationists over the dam builders. 
The proposal of the Army Engineers to build dams on the Clearwater 
river in the Idaho Wilderness area and the Arkansas river in Colorado 
were also defeated in the House. Five private power companies have also 
expressed interest in building these dams on the, Clearwater River. All too 
often, wildlife values are ignored in engineering surveys. Some day this 
country will have to resolve the controversy over dams versus wildlife 
values on all of our rivers. 
Another conservation problem which Congress ignored this year was 
that of water pollution. The Taft-Barkley Act of 1948 provides for federal 
government assistance to states thru research, technical counsel and loans 
for construction of sewage treatment facilities. It is estimated that our 
nation needs 6,000 new or improved sewage treatment plants. The grow- 
ing menace to public health and to wildlife was mainly ignored by Congress. 
The 1954-55 Duck Stamp will feature two ring-necked ducks “slanting- 
’ for a landing in a black and white watercolor feature. Sales of hunt- 
ing and fishing licenses have reached new highs; there are more than 
17,652,000 holders of fishing permits and over 14,832,000 hunters registered 
in this country. 
