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Illinois Audubon Society has presented its first award for newspaper 
achievement to the ALTON EVENING TELEGRAPH, Alion, IIJ1., for 
its in-depth coverage of issues vital to environmental quality. 
In the citation—made public during the IAS annual meeting in 
Springfield in May—Betty Groth, v-p for conservation, noted: ‘This 
year, instead of attacking forces which are destroying the environ- 
ment, IAS salutes the power of the press as a force which can help 
preserve environmental quality.” 
Mrs. Shirley Greer, Society member and an employee of the news- 
paper, accepted the award, which also said: 
“The ALTON EVENING TELEGRAPH has consistently given 
environmental issues full coverage. The L-15 Levee story alone has 
been effective in alerting interested citizens and groups to action in 
the hope of halting construction of L-15 by the Corps of Engineers.” 
Another campaign by the paper was in behalf of preservation of eagle 
roosts at Marquette State Park. 
‘AUDUBON CITATION 
GRATIFYING,’ 
EDITORS WRITE 
“We weren’t intentionally com- 
peting for any prizes when we be- 
came absorbed in the ecology im- 
provement efforts of the area. 
“But we are grateful to the 
Illinois Audubon Society for its top 
award to the Telegraph for our 
work over the past toward fighting 
off efforts at erosion of our sur- 
roundings. 
“As we see it, a newspaper’s 
responsibility is to do its utmost 
toward keeping its community in- 
formed of significant developments 
affecting its environs. 
“In the view of what we were 
hearing about ecology concern 
across the country, and potential 
threats we recognized as interpret- 
ed in these terms, it was difficult 
to accept any atternative but to 
inform our readers of Levee L-15’s 
threat. 
“We should point out, too, that 
if we’d been as self-centered as 
some Qf our critics like to charge 
us with being, we might have 
hoped the L-15 Levee would be 
constructed as promptly as possible 
on the chance that speedy devel- 
oping of housing and industry on 
Missouri Point wculd redistribute 
millions of dollars in the area. 
“We felt, of course, that this 
would have been only a long-shot 
gamble, anyway. Preserving our 
ecology was even far more impor- 
tant.” 
—Paul S. and Stephen A. Cousley 
Editors 
Alton Evening Telegraph 
