It leads, three years later, to the setting aside of 575 acres for wilderness and recreation in the Gila National Forest, in New Mexico, where Leopold works. Conservationists help expose the misdeeds of Albert B. Fall, President Warren G. Harding's secretary of the interior. After Congress documents his role in the illegal sale of drilling rights in the nation's oil reserve at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, Fall resigns and eventually goes to prison. Will Dilg uses his political influence to have the Upper Mississippi Wildlife and Fish Refuge approved by Congress. Apparently the country is out to lunch this year.
Diligent research reveals that absolutely nothing happens.
A history of serious floods on the Mississippi River prompts Congress to reauthorize the Rivers and Harbors Act, directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade navigation, water power, flood control, and irrigation for more than 200 U.S. streams. Feds charge bootleggers of liquor with bootlegging wild ducks to the market. 1928 Americans buy 6.5 million hunting licenses, compounding pressures on waterfowl that are already reeling under liberal bag limits and the widespread drainage of wetlands. The Great Depression descends on the nation. Audubon's long campaign to preserve waterfowl culminates in the passage by Congress of the Norbeck-Andersen Act.