ILLINOIS AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Number 164 Winter-Spring 1973 
inl PRS SBNEINHE Sy IM NES Si7eal= 
(About a Grass-Roots Conservation Question) 
Last October a young lady, Miss Ruth Bently of Highland Park, 
wrote a very moving letter to Betty Groth, our conservation vice 
president. Betty answered her letter and forwarded it to me for my 
thoughts. The letter reaches, in my estimation, to the basis for the 
existence of the Illinois Audubon Society, and | would like to share 
it with the members of the Society. 
Ruth is seventeen and had been deeply touched by a television 
program concerning a pair of curlews. It showed the complicated 
process of mate selection, the rigors of a long migration and the 
heartbreak of the death of one of the birds at the hands of a 
thoughtless farmer. Her question was how could SHE help prevent 
the wanton destruction of birds, especially endangered species. 
This is really a grass-roots conservation question and deserves care- 
ful consideration. 
We are all (as Audubon Society members) aware, | am sure, 
that almost all non-game birds are now protected by federal law. 
We also know that many conservation officers, both state and 
federal, work to enforce these and other game laws. But America 
is a large country and it is impossible to hope for a large percentage 
of law-violators to be apprehended. 
There is only one way in which we can hope to prevent this 
type of activity. Probably many of you have guessed what Ruth 
and the rest of us can do as individuals. We can EDUCATE others 
that birds need to be protected and why they need to be protected. 
For most citizens, the fact that the killing of most birds is against 
a law of the land is enough, but we must try to reach those who 
just plain don’t care . . . those, for example, who hunt for game 
with a license and feel they can take a shot at anything, protected 
or not . . . those who wish to mock the law to show they are 
bigger than the law or to impress their peers . . . those who may 
just not know the law. 
The television program Ruth Bently saw was an attempt to 
educate people. The publications and other activities of the Illinois 
Audubon Society are also attempts to educate people. But probably 
