42 TeH Ee ACU DU: BoOUNs. Bt Usage ery. 
ple supported the population-in- 
crease advocates. (As I write this, 
TV news has just reported that 
pineapples will no longer be grown 
in Hawaii because the land has 
become too popular for golf courses 
and for housing, and the U.S. will 
now import pineapples from Tai- 
wan and the Phillipines, where 
once again Americans will exploit 
the natives.) 
One does not write a letter to 
the editor of a newspaper to con- 
vince the editor or the vocal oppo- 
sition. He writes to convert and in- 
form the uncommitted. David 
Schoenbrun, the famed CBS re- 
porter, once said that “ a story is 
never told unless it is told a hun- 
dred times.” Environmental groups 
would do well to hammer away at 
the fact that the human population 
increase will not only lead to a de- 
cline or a disappearance of wildlife, 
but poses a serious threat to the 
quality of life for humans. 
One local writer, who said that 
she was more interested in a good 
life for humans than for wildlife, 
knows little of either. The popula- 
tion of DuPage County is now over 
500,000 and may eventually total 
over a million. Daily we see more 
open space disappearing for multi- 
ple housing. Audubon clubs would 
do well to take a greater interest 
in the matter of land reform and 
land zoning. The DuPage Forest 
Preserve District now has 9,000 
acres under its jurisdiction, which 
is considered far too low. Still, it 
is the second largest forest pre- 
serve body in the state of Illinois. 
Some counties have no county 
government unit purchasing land 
for public preserves; in fact, with 
102 counties, less than 15 have 
either a county conservation dis- 
trict or a forest preserve district. 
Land acquisition bonding authority 
has been pushed from 1.5 percent 
of assessed valuation to 2 percent. 
Ted Kavadas, who spoke to the 
May 22 meeting, suggested that II- 
linois is already 160,000 acres be- 
hind the national recommended 
average for recreation. The north- 
eastern part of the state, which is 
the most densely populated, lacks 
90,000 acres, despite the fact that 
all six counties have an FPD or a 
CCD. It is obvious that Audubon 
and other environmental groups 
will need to increase pressures for 
greater land purchases for open 
space recreation. 
Population of humans is pushing 
more and more wildlife to the brink 
of extinction: The Black-footed 
Ferret, the Whooping Crane, the 
Eastern Timber Wolf, the Ivory- 
billed Woodpecker, the Masked 
Bobwhite, the Peregrine Falcon, 
the Grizzly Bear, the Sonoran 
Pronghorn, the Hawaiian Coot, the 
Southern Bald Eagle, the Brown 
Pelican, the Houston Toad, the San 
Francisco Garter Snake, the Ha- 
waiian Stilt, the Molokia Creeper 
and many other forms of wildlife 
have been listed as “endangered.” 
(A recent count lists 101 species 
including, 14 mammals and_ 50 
birds.) 
On May 3, 1973, the President’s 
Annual Report on Foreign Policy 
included this statement: 
“Twenty years ago the world’s 
population was less than 2,600,000,- 
000. Today it is more than 3,800,- 
000,000, In just these two decades, 
the human family has increased 
by nearly half the total population 
attained in all the millenia before. 
In most of the developing countries, 
populations will double in next 2 
to 28 years. Rapid population 
growth burdens and retards devel- 
opment, accentuates malnutrition 
and unemployment, and crowds 
cities with slums. The United 
States now contributes to the 
United Nations Fund for Popula- 
tion Activities, which supports pro- 
grams in 76 countries, and to the 
International Planned Parenthood 
Federation with programs in over 
40 countries. 
