Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-01-06
BIRDS INDEED ARE
REAL PROTECTORS
VALUE TO FARMS AND FORESTS
SET FORTH BY AUDI
BON HEAD.

Prtection of the country's bird life
in the interest of future agriculture
and forestry was urged at the annual
meeting of the National Association
of Audubon societies by its president
William butcher in New York.
"The foundation of all the wealth
of the country is based on its agricul-
tural and forestry products, and with
out birds such products would be i'm
possible" he said. 'The annual loss
from insect and rodent pests at the
present time is estimated to be $780,
100000. When the public begins to
/, think about these figures and realize
that this annual loss may be reduced
| by such work as ours, | feel sure that
an adequate support will be forth
coming.
IF it is not, this generation is sim
ply robbing children yet unborn. This
is a terrible charge, but it is a true
one. If we permit the heritage of wild
birds that still exist to be wasted and
destroyed, we are robbing our child
rem. We are simply trustees and
should seek to enlarge the estate in
our care rather than squander it.
Il urge the foundation of fund to
be devoted to the legislative work of
this association. The public cannot
realize how very important this
branch of the work is, and how nee
essary it is to maintain eternal vigil
ance. To illustrate: after consider
able hard work a satisfactory bird
and game law is secured in state
You may think this is the end of the
story, and that our work is finished in
that locality, but it is not
I'm some states a session of the
legislature is held annually but for
tunately in most of the common
wealths biennially Every session of a
legislature must be closely watched
in order to prevent amendments to
our law that would weaken it, This
requires that copies of all bills intro
duced must be promptly obtained and
that the association is kept informed
of the committee to which the bill is
referred and also of the dates of
hearings by the committee. When the
bill is an important one a represent
ative of the association must be pres
ent at the hearing and speak for or
against it.
''The above outline is simply what
has to be done each year to prevent
undesirable legislation in one state,
and when it is multiplied by all of the
state holding legislative sessions
(forty-one in the coming winter), you
can fairly judge of the magnitude of
this branch of the work When the as
ISOLATION initiates legislation, which
it very often does, success demands
even greater efforts
Through the means of reserva-
tons this association has been able to
demonstrate to the public the practic-
al value of bird refugees. Whether the
land has been set aside by the feder-
al government, or is held under lease
by the association and this additional
but necessary tax upon our resources
has grown very rapidly during the
year and bids fair to expand very
greatly in the near future.
"The possibilities for good of this
feature of association work are so
full of promi e that I am warranted
in making a special and urgent appeal
for large fund to be devoted entire
ly to the acquisition of bird refugees
and the proper care of the same.
The refugees already secured are for
sea birds, and, in addition to many
more of these, there should be estab
lished for land birds, especially such
as grouse and quail, where expert
ments in propagation could be made