April 15, 1958

Dr. Walter P. Nickell
Cranbrook Institute of Science
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Dear Dr. Nickell:

I am assembling a large amount of material on the effects -- especially the long-range effects -- of DDT and other insecticides, from the standpoint of the whole biological community including man. I understand this is a subject in which you have been interested, and no doubt have published.

Since I have a vast amount of literature to cover within the limits of available time, I am trying to obtain reprints wherever possible. So I shall be grateful if you will send me copies of any of your publications on this subject; I shall take good care to return them in case your supply is limited.

It is my own conviction that this is a subject of enormous and growing importance, and I am pleased that I now have an opportunity to bring out a small book that will, I trust, serve to bring some of the problems to the attention of the public.

I visited Cranbrook at about this time of year in 1954, I think, and remember my associations there with great pleasure. I assume Dr. Hatt is still there; please give him my greetings.

Sincerely yours,

CRANBROOK INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICHIGAN

April 29, 1958

Miss Rachel L. Carson
11701 Berwick Road
Silver Spring, Maryland

Dear Miss Carson:

I am sorry to have been delayed in answering your letter of April 15 but I was almost completely occupied in work on a professional paper and in attending the meetings of the Wilson Ornithological Club during this time.

Although I have been for several years very much interested in the problem of the indiscriminate use of the chlorinated hydrocarbons and the various herbicides and have been gathering a large file of material on these subjects, I have never actually written any reports. About two years ago I did give an interview to the "Birmingham Eccentric" of Birmingham, Michigan, expressing my views and indicating some data which we had collected here at the museum. This interview was apparently rather widely quoted at the time and several hundred copies of the newspaper were sent out to various people by the Organic Gardeners Association. I am afraid that I gave to others the few copies of the "Eccentric" which I had at the time. I believe you must have most, if not all, of the other material which I have received from other sources.

We are already beginning to receive telephone reports of several species of birds exhibiting symptoms of DDT poisoning this spring. All of these which we can obtain, especially the ones which are still living at the time we received them, are being studied and upon death are being placed in our deep freeze for possible liver and muscle analysis at a later date.

Another interesting development which has not reached our attention before this spring is that owners of many estates and small land holdings in our area are not spraying this year because they have been told by their physicians that some of the skin ailments that have shown up within recent years are due to contact with some of these sprays. Also interesting is the conviction reached by the majority of the people in several neighborhoods that blanket spraying is not a universal panacea and costs more than it is worth. I believe that if this growing conviction can be bolstered by more research and a booklet such as yours that better results will be obtained than by almost any other method.

TRUSTEES: L. James Bulkley, Chairman

Walker Cisler ▲ LeRoy W. Dahlberg

Henry S. Hulbert ▲ William E. Kapp
Chester B. Slawson ▲

Marston Bates ▲ Pierre Dansereau

Lee R. Dice ▲

Robert R. McMath ▲

Frederick S. Strong, Jr. ▲

James A. Beresford ▲

Douglas Dow ▲

Harvey M. Merker ▲

Ralph A. Ulveling ▲

William E. Beresford ▲

Leo Goldberg ▲

Willard H. Parsons ▲

Theodore O. Yntema ▲

Fred L. Black ▲

Alexander W. Blain ▲

William P. Harris, Jr. ▲

Harry Lynn Pierson ▲

DIRECTOR: Robert T. Hatt

September 29, 1958

Dear Dr. Nickell:

My long delay in resuming the correspondence
we began last April does not by any means indicate a
loss of interest on my part. On the contrary, I have
been so deeply immersed in this enormous and ever-
expanding subject that I have put off writing to thank
you for your helpful letter, and to ask you for still
more help.

I have been interested, as I am sure you have,
in various reports issued this summer from widely scattered
areas, all indicating a reduction of bird populations.
A significant number of these seem to be based on sound
observations, and not merely on general impressions.
You suggested in your letter of April 29th that you would
send me data you have been assembling this season. If
you are prepared to furnish any of this now I shall be
most grateful.

Your information that physicians in your area
have advised their patients not to spray was certainly
interesting. As I probably told you, I am going into
all aspects of the problem in my book -- the effects on
human health as well as on wildlife, and the alarming
change in the whole natural environment. I am greedy
for all information on any of these aspects that anyone
can send me, and shall be most grateful for any infor-
mation, suggestions, or references that you can furnish,
now or within the next few months.

My greetings to Dr. and Mrs. Hatt, and my
sincere thanks for your interest and help.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Walter P. Nickell
Cranbrook Institute of Science
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICHIGAN

October 6, 1958

Dear Miss Carson:

I am answering your letter immediately with what I have actually at hand at the moment in the hope that it may be of some service to you at this time. Later, when I have had the opportunity to summarize the total material for this season, I will write you in greater detail.

Several species of birds are undoubtedly much reduced in numbers this year. Three species in particular, which are normally common to abundant in this entire area have been either uncommon or almost absent this year. These are the bluebird which normally could be called moderately common to the extent of occupying most of the properly built and placed man-made houses each season, has been reported less than a half dozen times this season. I, personally, have not seen a single bluebird in the year 1958 in this region. All other observers, whose reports I get each season, have observed the same scarcity. At this point I would like to emphasize that my ornithological contacts range over a 400 mile diameter area in southwestern Ontario, the southern peninsula of Michigan and as far south as central Ohio. The robin was nowhere reported abundant in either migration or in their normal nesting areas. Pinpointing the Cranbrook campus where normally we have at least 30 or 40 pairs of robins nesting every year, this year produced with intensive hunting, only five nesting pairs. I estimate that about 50 telephone calls from people over the Detroit region were received this summer asking about "What has happened to the robin?" In addition to these general observations, I have had correspondence with several people regarding this subject. Dr. George Wallace, Professor of Ornithology at Michigan State University at Lansing has written me several times in connection with the robin scarcity. As you may know, there has been a heavy DDT spray program on the Michigan State campus for several years. He stated in one of his letters that he had not been able to find a single robins nest on the entire campus this year. He has written at least one newspaper article on this subject. You may want to write him to obtain a clipping. The phoebe has been a common bird throughout this region for at least 30 years to my knowledge. The Michigan Audubon Society sponsored a statewide phoebe nesting survey about 2 or 3 years ago and at that time literally hundreds of active nests were found by a large number of observers. In my nest hunting over the years I usually discover up to 50 nests a season without specialising on this bird. In other words, just in the normal summers nest hunting. This year for the first time I found only 3 nests of the phoebe and saw only a scattered few individuals otherwise.

Birds like the yellow warbler, Traill's flycatcher, and the goldfinch

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which were down in population last year in this region, seemed to have
staged a considerable comeback since wholesale spraying seems to have
diminished in the last year or two. A number of species of marsh and
water birds are low in population in this region, apparently brought
about by the lowest water levels in about 30 years in both the Great Lakes
Waterway and inland lakes and marshes. These birds are the Least and
American bitterns, pied-billed grebe, coot, Florida gallinule, long-billed
marsh wren and black-crowned night heron. The two largest black crowned
night heron colonies which had been in existence for at least 35 to 40 years,
one near Bay City and the Harsen's Island in Lake Saint Clair, both were
abandoned after the 1956 nesting season and neither has been reoccupied.

These observations and facts, general and scattered as they may be, at
the moment may be of some value to you in showing trends. The meteorlogi-
cal information having to do with farther south colder weather than normal
has apparently been seized upon in several instances as a cause of the low
population of such birds as the robin, bluebird and phoebe. But I believe,
as do several others with whom I have corresponded or talked, that the fire
and spraying in the Southern Gulf Coastal States might be worth investigating
as a possible major cause of this scarcity. I am very much pleased that
a naturalist and writer of your high caliber is writing a book on this
subject. It is certainly very badly needed and I am sure will be very much
appreciated by a large number of people interested in the matter of our
diminishing wildlife, whatever the causes may be.

Thank you very much for writing me. I will be glad to be of help when-
ever possible. Very best wishes for a happy and productive year ahead.

WP:am

October 11, 1958

Dear Dr. Nickell:

Many thanks for your excellent and
very helpful letter. This is exactly the sort
of information I need.

Dr. George Wallace has also sent me
some good observations and references. All
of this encourages me greatly in the belief
that it is possible to document the decline
in bird populations with some comparative
figures (such as yours on nests) that have
real meaning.

Are you by any chance coming to Washington
for the AAAS meetings in December?

I am grateful for your offer of the
present season's data after you have summarized
it, and shall look forward to receiving this.
Meanwhile, I do appreciate your present help.

Sincerely,

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forms of wild life when the thaw comes next spring.

I am one of those who is in accord with Dr. Murphy and the Long Island group (and of course many others) in believing that the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture needs some real scientific investigation of its programs related to the use of highly toxic chemicals. You no doubt have seen George Wallace's article in the Audubon Magazine of some months ago about the spray program at Lansing, Michigan. This was another U. S. Dept. of Agriculture project, as was that in the Long Island area and that in the Gulf coastal area. Among other things, the completely arbitrary and dictatorial attitude which they use in going ahead with these various projects is certainly not in accordance with our American democratic traditions.

In relation to the use of DDT this past year in the Birmingham and Detroit areas, it appears that there has been comparatively little bird mortality in the thickly populated portions of Detroit, but a much greater mortality in the Birmingham area. Investigation has revealed that a great deal of the mortality in the Birmingham area is due to individual property owners, in greater numbers than in most sections of the country, soaking their lawns with chlordane and spraying all of their shrubbery and flower garden plants with DDT. The combination of the elm tree program managed by the city of Birmingham and these extra curricular sprayings, I believe, accounts for the larger mortality rate which we have pin-pointed.

We are entirely dependent upon interested people in the Birmingham area to bring dying or dead birds to us. Hence we get an estimated 1% or less of the birds actually killed. During the spring migration in 1959, we had 143 birds of 53 species brought to us for possible analysis. Approximately 50% of these birds were brought in while still living but exhibiting all of the well-known symptoms of DDT poisoning. Nearly 10% of the birds brought to us were robins. This corresponds closely to George Wallace's analysis of the robin situation at Lansing, the robin being particularly susceptible due to its large consumption of earth worms.

Very few robins have been able to bring off young in the Birmingham area within the last five years. Our centre piece in our deep freeze, which is only one of several instances investigated, is a robin nest with three dead, half-fledged young, with the male and female flanking the nest. I personally removed this nest from a low juniper which was under a large elm tree sprayed heavily with DDT less than a week before.

I met with Mr. Arnold Michlin, owner of the chemical company which furnishes most of the chlorinated hydrocarbons used in the southern Michigan area including Lansing, and with Mr. Vaydik and Mr. Gale, who are responsible for the spray programs in Detroit and Birmingham respectively. We were trying to work out some sort of time schedule which would confine the spray program entirely to the winter and early spring periods. We had agreed that all of us in this area, foresters, chemists and naturalists, would hold meetings before any radical change was made in the further use of toxic chemicals. The alderin program specified as Japanese beetle control, as I said before, has been kept under cover, but when spring comes a number of us are going to be carrying on investigations

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which may be able to determine the extent of mortality involved. If you
are interested further, we will give you our conclusions--perhaps by next
June.

I have re-addressed your letter to Anne Boyes so that she
should get it in the next mail. Her address is:

19164 Pennington
Detroit, Michigan

which is also the headquarters of the Detroit Audubon Society.

I hope I have been of a little help to you despite the
inconclusiveness of many of my remarks. Any time I can be of further
help to you, please do not hesitate to write me. Dr. Hatt is an extremely
busy man these days but is in good health.

With very best regards.

Sincerely,

Walter P. Nickell
Naturalist

WPN:rh

P.S. Having to be away from the museum on a trip I was fortunate in this instance in riding with Mr. Carl Bailey whose work for the past thirty years has been with the extension service of Michigan State University and under the sponsorship of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. My belief expressed in the above letter that the U. S. Department of Agriculture was responsible for the work in disseminating aldrin was confirmed by him. He seemed rather vague as to whether there was a definite outbreak of Japanese beetles so it appears that a few beetles were found and the work of poisoning began at the behest of the farmers in Monroe County. Probably because both the poison and the airplanes were furnished free by the Department of Agriculture.

W.P.N.